Half-dragon of zero
by Rotrox
Summary: Louise got what she wanted, in a way. Now she has to deal with a familiar that does whatever she wants and is just out for adventure and fun. Watch out world for you shall meet your first half-dragon.
1. Chapter 1

**Rewritten chapter**

* * *

"Speech: Halkeginian"

 _'Thoughts/Telepathy'_

 **'Spells and the like'**

 _"Speech: Common"_

 _ **"Speech: Draconic"**_

* * *

Demi-plane

* * *

The multiverse is a strange thing. It's a collection of an infinite number of infinite dimensions, or planes, if one will.

In some realities people have managed to explore parts of this multiverse, and many planes of existence have been given names by both visitors and their inhabitants.

Such exploration required some way of differentiating between planes. This led to the structuring of the great wheels. Basically each planar wheel is a single material plane with all the planes directly adjacent to it, which is mostly elemental planes, and outer planes. Elemental planes are what the name already suggests, while the outer planes are a bit more strange, as they do not strictly have to follow the rules us mortals would be used to.

Some of the most known outer planes are: The Celestial realms, Elysium, Hell, Abaddon, and the Abyss.

What all planes, and what all great wheels have in common however is one simple fact. They are connected through the Astral Plane.

The astral plane is also where we currently find ourselves. Or more specifically inside a small pocket dimension contained and hidden within the Astral Realm.

This Demi-plane is something that powerful spellcasters can create by weaving the very fabric of creation to their will, binding and shaping it as they wish.

It is a quaint little place, and it resembles what mortals used to believe their world to look like, which in this case would mean a flat island floating in a black void of nothingness.

Most of the island is covered in a lightly forested area and grassland, upon the latter of which a sizable mansion is situated. One 'corner' of the island however is different, as it is a rocky expanse of charred ground and multiple pools of lava are scattered across it. If one were to look closely one would see that the grassland ends abruptly, rather than it gradually fading as it came closer. In fact not even two feet in front of where the grass ends the temperature would still be that of a pleasant spring day.

If one were to however cross that border one would be struck by searing heat immediately, such is the logic of planes created in this way.

* * *

Demi-Plane: Mansion

* * *

Inside the mansion one would currently see a curious spectacle, a spectacle that would leave quite a few people confused at just what was going on.

The spectacle in question is a busty woman, who has the looks of being a lovechild between a reptile and an elf, dragging a man of elven descent wearing a full suit of plate across a hallway by his hand.

The woman has long Silver hair, that is split on to of her head by a pair of red horns, tied up in a ponytail yet still reaching all the way to her lower back sapphire eyes, talons for hands and gold scales scattered across her body periodically. She has a face that conveys undeniable femininity, and curves women would kill for, a long tail the same length as she is tall swaying idly behind her. Lastly she has a pair of leathery wings folded neatly on her back, the last detail needed to successfully identify her as a golden half-dragon.

 _"Damn it Raskreia, you know that I'm busy. I cant just randomly leave whenever I want anymore."_ Says the man towards the woman, Raskreia, in a tone that hopefully conveys that he is annoyed.

The man, or Half-elf as many could tell you, is standing at an impressive 6'8'' made only more imposing by his set of full-plate. He has short blonde hair, and blue eyes that have a look in them of having seen just a bit too much yet having endured it all.

 _"Oh shut up Thorgal. No matter what you might tell yourself or your subordinates, you too need a break occasionally. How long have you been buried under that mound of paper? And when was the last time you saw actual sunlight?"_ Raskreia speaks back at the man, Thorgal, she is currently dragging behind her in just as an annoyed tone as he had. _"Besides today is a special occasion as you have most undoubtedly forgotten."_

One blonde brow raises up in silent confusion at that statement, something that is not missed by the reptilian woman. She shakes her head in slight disbelief, sending her long silver strands swaying both ways.

 _"Today is the fiftieth anniversary of us meeting one another as a party. And I will be damned if you spend it signing pointless legislations."_ Her tone is conveying a deep sense of excitement at some prospect, and at this point Thorgal knows he will not get any work done. At least not if he does not wish to hurt Raskreia's feelings overly, knowing her she has prepared something big as a means to celebrate.

With a last sigh of reassignment he shakes his hand out of hers and starts walking next to her of his own accord. _"Fine. It is not like the order will burn if I am gone for a while."_

He gains an amused snort from her at his words, but whether due to her agreeing with his statement or not he doesn't know.

By now they have reached a set of double doors, which are already open, that lead into a sizable room which Raskreia had dubbed the 'Party room'. It has a warm fireplace, a large table fit for at least a dozen people, a large cushioned sofa at one of the walls opposite of the little bar and lastly a small dance floor in the middle.

There are currently three individuals situated in this room.

One is a white and black striped Tiger currently sleeping soundly in front of the fireplace.

The other is stout red headed and bearded dwarf lounging on the sofa, compressing the soft cessions quite a bit with his own weight and that of his own Bullete-full-plate. His stony eyes convey his own annoyance at something, probably the current situation, even as he is idly drinking something out of a flagon.

And the last person, currently mixing drinks behind the bar, is what at first glance appears to be a human, but on closer inspection reveals himself to be in fact a Tiefling due to his slightly red-tinged skin, almost imperceptible black horns camouflaged almost completely by his black hair and his long prehensile tail.

The dwarf is first to spot them enter. _"Ah took you bloody long enough. The sooner we are done here the sooner I can get back to my forge."_ The fact that he periodically comes to visit on his own accord is left unmentioned by all that is present.

 _"Kwalin, Kwalin, Kwalin. Your words say that you wish not to be here, yet your actions in drinking three flagons of ale speak a different story."_

All that he got from Kwalin was a grunt as he didn't deny or confirm anything verbally while drinking from his flagon.

 _"Alright"_ comes the cheerful voice of Raskreia _"Zarhon, let me help you mix those drinks. Then let us get this party started."_

One hour later the four people and the tiger are all sitting around the table eating a meal previously prepared, sharing what they had been doing since the had last seen one another.

It was going all well, and all of them seemed to enjoy themselves despite certain peoples reluctance at first.

That is… until Raskreia started to hear a voice in her head. Now while many people would think that the voice was coming from somewhere around her Raskreia is no such person, she can recognize a form of telepathy when she encounters it.

 _'_ _My servant that existed somewhere in this vast universe…'_ the voice would go.

"Err… guys? You hearing a telepathic message too?" _'Also I'm no ones damn servant.'_ Raskreia says to the others in a lightly concerned tone as she adds the last part in the (hopefully) confines of her mind.

The others look around at one another but no one seemed to hear anything, but all of them are now on their guard and it is Kwalin that voices what they are all thinking "What does it say?"

 _"Eh its saying something about… hang on there is more."_

 _'-My divine, beautiful, wise and powerful servant, heed my call…'_

 _"It seems to be a summoning, and whoever it is, is trying to flatter me."_

 _'I wish from the very bottom of my heart and add to my guidance and appear.'_ Then the chanting abruptly stops, and all is quiet once more in Raskreia's head.

 _"I think the spell is done, do you think it faileeeaaaaaa-"_ the last bit was drawn out as a portal had suddenly opened beneath her feet swallowing her up and closing before anyone could react or reach for her.

The next thing Raskreia knew was that she was falling (figuratively speaking) through the astral plane at ridiculous speeds, she saw many planes of existence shoot by, some familiar many not. Though she would try to reach some of the ones she caught a glimpse of at a later time.

 _'Well, I suppose all I can do for now is to wait to arrive at the other end, they should really work on the transportation method this spell uses though. While pretty it could definitely be faster.'_

* * *

Tristain academy of magic (TAoM)

* * *

It was a rather nice late spring afternoon in the lands of Halkeginia. But it was not just any old spring day, no, today was the day of the springtime familiar summoning ritual.

Most of this years students have already gone, some getting impressive summons such as a salamander and even a dragon. Yes all of them have tried and succeeded in summoning a familiar for themselves, all but one Louise De la Vallière who was desperately hoping to be actually forgotten for once.

"Has everyone had yet?" asked a middle aged gentleman, one professor Jean Colbert.

As everyone confirmed that they all had a go Louise's hopes flared at being overlooked but it was not to be as one of her fellows, one of her more frequent bullies, voices himself.

"No professor, Ms Vallière has not yet gone."

 _'Brimir damn you.'_ Louise silently fumed as she went to attempt her summoning.

Most students backed up slightly already anticipating the incoming explosion as the girl started her chant.

As her chant reached a crescendo runes of unfamiliar design started forming on the ground at the summoning circle. And a small, a very small, tear in the fabric of reality formed. Not that anyone noticed as they were covering from the expected explosion and the tear was only there for a split second before actually exploding.

"Hah, I knew it" The same boy from before speaks up again "Once a Zero always a Zero."

Many, but not all, are of the same opinion. For one both the Professor and a blue haired petite girl notice a faint silhouette of something inside the dust cloud that had been created.

Inside the cloud one now rather irate half-dragon is silently fuming at her current situation. Getting her bearings back in check she uses her draconic senses to scan the area vaguely, and she promptly discovers that she is surrounded by a good few dozen individuals either children or some form of small race as well as a plethora of other creatures varying in size and form.

Deciding that her current appearance might be a shock to some she wants to play it safe and uses her greater hat of disguise to cast **'Alter self'** to become a human for the time being.

 _'Its interesting in how many societies humans are an accepted race.'_ Raskreia thought as the dust settled revealing a courtyard filled with quite a number of children and a man, all human, accompanied by a plethora of different creatures. _'HAH! I love it when I'm right. Humans, all of them. Wait is that a blue dragon and a beholder?'_ further contemplation of the potentially dangerous creatures is interrupted by the approach of a petite little girl who seems to be a few years younger than the rest of those present. In the background Raskreia can hear the murmuring of the children.

"Look, the Zero has summoned a commoner!" Said a boy near the back.

"I wouldn't have minded summoning such a commoner myself. I mean, look at her!" said another to the first.

"Look at her attire, surely no commoner could afford something like that." This came from a girl to the front.

"Probably stolen, as if a noble could be summoned. And even if they could the Zero could never do something like that." And many similar comments were given much to the irritation of Raskreia who did not like being talked about as if she were not present, and her apparent summoner does not seem to like these comments much more than her either.

To Louise this was one of the worst possible scenarios, while she did summon something she summoned something that is in her eyes useless, a commoner.

True, a beautiful commoner, but a commoner no less. She looks rather weak if the lack of any visible muscle is any indication, she does not seem to be accustomed to any kind of labor judging by the well taken care of hair and delicate fingers. And worst of all the woman's figure is infinitely more appealing than her own, what with those Kirche sized mounds of useless flesh on her chest and eye drawing hips. Not that Louise would admit defeat to this woman. _'Great, looks like I might have summoned a concubine or something similar'_

"Professor, may I try again? I'm sure I can do it properly this time." Raskreia is certainly not sure if that is to be considered rude or not.

"No you know the rules, you may only ever cast this ritual once. Now finish it please would you?"

 _'Lets play along, I don't feel like fighting my way out of a gaggle of children right now. Much less child mages'_ "Just finish whatever you need finishing then." Raskreia cant help but notice the slight blush on the girls face after the statement and has to wonder why that would be. As the girl starts chanting something and Raskreia for her part is trying to figure out what it might be that the ritual is meant to do. _'don't know what they are trying to do, mind control isn't going to work as I have a permanent mind blank active, if it kills me I have a clone back home etc. now why would she be embarrassed though about finishing this- KISS!'_

Rask violently jerks back as the lips of a young girl meet hers to the light jeering of boys under the protection of crowd-anonymity. "Tiamat's tits warn a girl when you are about to do something like that."

As soon as she had finished saying that a burning sort of pain engulfs her hand, and she can feel beyond the pain something probing against her mental defenses but unable to penetrate the multiple layers.

Looking down at her hand where the pain is originating from Rask sees a set of runes, which read 'Gandalfr' over and over, being branded onto her.

Seeing the confusion in the woman's gaze as she is looking at the brand Louise decides to elaborate. "Those are just the familiar runes."

The half-dragon-in-disguise cant help but blink several times letting that statement sink in for a moment. _'This stuff only happens to adventurers… I swear!'_


	2. Chapter 2

Raskreia's point of view

* * *

Today is not a good day

Getting summoned? Ok, i can live with that! Getting summoned and then branded with magic like some animal? That is not ok. But i suppose i will play allong for now. So far nothing absolutely bad has happened, besides i can leave whenever, plane shift and teleport be praised.

At this point the pink haired girl seems to be seething with anger and the rest of children are laughing at the "incompetence" of said pink haired girl. Meanwhile the bald man walks up to me.

"May i have a look at those rune on your hand?" He asks politely.

"As long as you don't stamp any more on my sure i don't see the harm in it" after i reach out with my hand he grabs it and copies the runes on my hand over to a paper.

"Right! Soooo... is anyone going to explain to me what in the nine hells is going on here exactly and where i am?"

At this the pinkette answers before the man has a chance to "You are here because i have summoned you to be my familiar with the summon servant spell, and i am your master now." I roll my eyes at that, which the girl doesn't seem to notice "And you are in Tristians academy of magic."

"Is there a reason why you couldn't have summoned something else after you summoned me, as i have quite clearly stated that i have no interest of becoming subservient to someone?"

This question was answered by the professor "The reason for that is that the spring-time summoning is an ancient holy tradition in which the second year students here at the academy summon their life long companions and once a familiar has been summoned one is not allowed to summon another, to do so would be heresy."

I raised an eyebrow at that "Holy tradition huh? Well alright ill stick around for a while not like i have anything better to do anyway."

"A wise choice, now students its getting late go back to your rooms."

At this the children disperse by flying over a nearby wall. "I didn't think i would ever say this but, what a waste of magic." The only one who does not fly off is my 'master' "Why don't you fly as well?"

"Because i don't want to alright? Now get the move on familiar"

"Could you not call me familiar? My name is Raskreia, or Rask for short, yours?"

"I will do no such thing, and my name is Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière, but you will refer to me as 'master'"

"That's a mouth-full of a name if i have ever heard one"

* * *

Louise's room: Raskreia's point of view

* * *

"Alright nice room, only one bed tough. Where am i supposed to sleep then?" and she just points to a stack of hay in the corner "That just wont do, the fact that i have slept on worse doesn't even matter here. I will tell you this only once. I am neither your pet nor your slave. If you cant treat me with a basic amount of respect i will just leave."

"You will not leave. I am your master and i decide where you can and cant go and if you run away there will be an people hunting you down." Louse answered me in an annoyed tone.

"And what makes you think that i cant defend myself if something like that does occur?"

"Because you are a commoner, commoner cant fight against nobles."

"This is one of those place huh? Tell me what makes you nobles so great that commoners cant fight against you?"

"Magic of course, nobles have magic!"

"And commoners don't"

"Of course not that's why they are commoners, nobility comes from magic just as magic comes from nobility. From what barbaric backwater country did you come from that you don't even know such basics."

At this point I'm getting quite annoyed at her condescending attitude, i just cant stand the arrogant types "I was born and raised in the village of Anaa in the forests of moonlight valley, located in the south of Varisia a country part of the Chelaxian Empire on the continent of Avistan in the north the world of Golarion just south of the crown of the world and north of Garund. Does that answer your question?"

She seems speechless for a moment.

* * *

Louise's point of view

* * *

I summoned a lunatic, she believes she is from some other world. What nonsense there is no other worlds.

"There is no such thing as other worlds and you should know better than to suggest otherwise" i replied in a matter of fact tone. As a master its my duty to educate my familiar after all.

"There is most certainly more than one world, heck i can name more than five out of the top of my head."

"Stop spouting nonsense you are probably just from Rub'ahn kali north from the elven lands!"

She then responded with something i did not expect "There are elves in this world as well? I will have to go visit them in the near future, id like to see how they live here."

At this i lost my self control "What? Are you mad do you want to get yourself killed?"

"Why is the road there dangerous? Trust me i can take care of myself"

"The problem is not the road there its the elves themselves. A human doesn't stand a chance against an elf much less a commoner"

"What's with the elves? Are they drow?" a what? "Drow?" "Uhh Dark elves"

"There is such a thing as dark elves?" i may or may not have said that with a little bit of fear in my voice

"Well i assume the elves that you are talking about are drow as you have stated they are dangerous, do they have dark blue skin?"

This confused me even more "No they have the same colour skin as humans do the only difference they have to humans in appearance is their long ears." I say describing what i read about elves "They are the most ancient enemy of humanity defeated by founder Brimir over six thousand years ago, they use ancient magic and are said to make pacts with demons and their heathen gods"

At this my familiar goes into what seems to be contemplation "They do sound different elves that i am used to. You see where i come from most elves are on good terms with humans with the exception of most drow, i should know i am an elf from my world after all"

* * *

Raskreia's point of view

* * *

I grin, oh how i wish i had my ussual dragon-like teeth, and say "- i should know, i am an elf from my world after all" as i change my disguise to that of me as an elf without the dragon parts.

And the reaction i got from her was the best thing ever since Zarhon decided it was a brilliant idea to go outside during a tornado. She practically vaulted onto her bed putting her pillow between herself and me as an improvised shield dropping her wand in the process. I couldn't help but laugh at the display.

"E-e-el-elf!" she stammers out pointing at me.

Still chuckling a bit i say "Yes i'm an elf, yet not really technically i'm only one fourth elf. I'm an aasimar you see."

"A-aasimar" she seems to have calmed down a bit knowing the fact that im not a full elf, good thing she doesn't know i'm mostly a dragon "What is that? I have never heard of such a race"

"We are not really a race as such. There is aasimar of many different races, we are basically people with a tiny bit of celestial blood in us"

He eyes widen at this "Celestial? As in angels? You are an angle"

"No im not an angle aasimar are not celestials themselves but descendants of them."

"So you really are not an elf" She seems to relax a bit

"Well i like to identify myself as an elf, but no i'm not an elf i'm an aasimar"

"Is there anything else i should know about you that you are not telling me right now?"

Ohh boy "Well there is two things" i say sheepishly. "Well then out with it" she says impatiently.

"Well i may or may not be a sorceress"

She starts mumbling at this "Great Louise, not only do you summon an elf, but a noble elf as well"

"I'm not a noble." I say to her mumbling

"But you said you are a mage just now, those two statements are contradictions. You cannot have magic without being a noble."

"Maybe here that is the case but where i come from only the smallest number of magic users actually posses nobility, most mages and the like in my home care very little about politics, me included"

"How does that even work? Who protects the commoners without nobles to watch over them."  
"You really should not underestimate people without magic Louise, they can be just as dangerous as without"  
"Nonsense, a commoner could never defeat a mage."  
"And that's where you are wrong, i have seen people without an ounce of magic fight down demons and devils, and there is a fair number of fighters where i come form that specialize in taking down mages. And trust me when i tell you they are good at what they are doing."

"How could people with no magic stand against a mage?"  
"Its quite hard to concentrate on spells when there is a very angry person trying to stick pointy things right into your face, but we got distracted, yes im a sorcerer mostly an evocation sorcerer."  
"Evocation?" Louise says cocking her head to the side.

"Didn't you say you are in your second year at this magic academy? How do you not know what evocation is, its usually one of the first schools of magic they teach."  
"Schools of magic? There is only the five elements of magic!" She states in a matter of fact type of way

"Hmm your magic sounds allot like elementalist magic but five elements? Can you tell me a bit more about your magic?"  
She puffs out her rather flat chest at this and raises a a finger into the air.  
"You see there is five types of magic: fire, water, earth, wind and the lost element of void. People who can control one element are called dot mages, if they can control two elements they are line mages, three is triangle and four is square." She states, and seems rather proud.

"Well it does seem like our magic has quite allot of difference" i state sitting down in a nearby chair. "My magic system is divided into eight schools of magic."  
"EIGHT?!" she states rather loudly in disbelief.  
"Yes eight, they are: Alteration, abjuration, divination, illusion, evocation, necromancy and transmutation."  
"I know of transmutation and illusion magic we have that to, they are part of earth magic and wind magic respectively." Oh that sounds interesting "Really now? I will have to read up on your system of magic once i get the time. But im not done describing my magic"  
"There is more?" she states seemingly shocked.  
"Oh that's just the basics. Aside from the schools of magic the individual schools are divided into sub-schools but lets not dive into that right now." The only thing i receive is a nod of agreement. She seems to be listening very intently to what i'm saying

"Well then, schools and sub schools out of the way that leaves us with circles of magic. Where your magic is ranked in four points my magic is ranked into nine circles, well technically eleven but the last two are not really counted as circles by most people."  
"So what you are saying is that people who can cast spells of this so called 9th circle are to you what are to me square class mages?"  
"Basically yes, tough i do not know what your magic is capable of so i cant be too certain. You see there is a huge difference between being able to cast 8th and 9th level spells. 9th level spells can get quite scary."  
"And the other 2 'circles' ?" She ask with typical childish curiosity.  
"Ah those. First we have cantrip's minor magic tricks" I say making a small spray of spars using **"Spark"** "Also known as spells of the 0th circle. You aren't even considered a mage yet at the point when you learn these"

At this point i have her undivided attention, forgotten is the fact that i'm an elf in her eyes. "And the other one?"  
"That would be epic spells" i do not continue at this point which apparently dosn't sit very well with Louise  
"Epic spells? Surely you must know more about them than just that they exist, there must be something that makes them deserve the name."

I let out a sigh, i said a bit to much now there is no other way than to go through what epic spells are. "Epic spells are spells that transcend the normal circles of magic. Barely anyone short of gods an- " Louise interrupts me at this.

* * *

Louise's point of view

* * *

"There is only one god!" I snap at my familiar. So far i have been listening to her strange attics

"Is there now? Where i come from we have many, this god must be quite lucky to have a monopoly over an entire world, what is his name?"  
"I don't care for your heathen gods the only god is Founder Brimir"  
"Never heard of him. What domains does he have?"  
"Domains?" what is she on about now "He owns all the land in this world, he is god after all" What a weird question.

And she giggles at my answer, by Brimir if my wand wasn't right next to her i would have blasted her for her heresy long ago.  
"No silly. I mean what four godly domains does he represent. Such as good and evil. Law or chaos. Ah what ever its not important. I don't really care what god or gods people worship as long as its not one of the ones commonly accepted as evil."

I don't like this i don't like this one bit. But its getting late and i should go to bed now.

* * *

Raskreia's point of view

* * *

She seems to have gotten to terms with what i have just told her, that was easier than i expected. Its getting late, i better prepare my 'bed' to sleep.

As i walk to my 'bed' im suddenly assaulted by a multitude of clothes, with a suddenly very naked Louise standing there expectantly.

Before i can even question what is going on "Go wash these familiar and i want them ready by morning"  
Now normally i would have either cleaned them with 'Prestidigitation' or outright refused, but i can use this as an excuse to explore the castle a bit, knowing your surroundings is always a good idea. As such my response is "Sure, what ever."

As such i left the room with a basket full of laundry. I'm also pretty sure im forgetting something important.  
At least she forgot to push the topic of epic tier spells.


	3. Chapter 3

**Aline1: I know about what you mentioned with Brimir, however i find it just simply easier to reffer to him as the local god.  
And your second point about the creatures. You really have to consider what kind of world golarion is, there are spiders which spin their webs between mountains to catch dragons and similar sized things in them, orcs there are also juggernauts of war, trolls are much nastier in D&D what with their monstrous ****strength and their incredible regeneration. Well, i will be working on figuring out something to challange Rask a bit.**

* * *

Raskreia's point of view

* * *

I'm currently standing outside in one of the many hallways of this damn place, with a maid cowering before me in fear, and I didn't even do anything. I'm sure there is a perfectly reasonable explanation as to why this is happening.

Lets retrace my steps.  
I left Louise's room to find a place to do laundry at.

I found nothing but a blonde human version of Zarhon trying to hit on some girl.

I rounded a corner bumped into this girl helped her up apologized and then she started freaking out.

Nope... still can't figure out what i did. Lets just ask.

* * *

Siesta point of view

* * *

These nobles are so arrogant, I just hope none of them get any funny ideas like the ones in the novels i frequently read. I don't think I would be ready for that.

The very next moment i walked into someone and fell to the floor.  
"Oh dear. I'm sorry." said the person in front of me now clearly identifiable as a woman if the voice is anything to go by "Here let me help ya up." Grabbing the outstretched hand, which cant possibly belong to a commoner with how soft it felt, I got pulled up with surprising strength.  
I was then face to face with the most beautiful woman I have seen in my life.  
Deep sapphire blue eyes which almost seemed to glow, a flawless face with a warm smile plastered on it, long silver hair parted at the side of her head by a pair of long pointy ears... wait, what? **SHE IS AN ELF!**

Oh dear Brimir I don't want die. As such I did the only sensible thing i could at this moment and jumped back a good five feet and started begging for my life.

"Oh please don't kill me, I wont tell anyone I saw you I swear" This was obviously a lie on my part I had to tell people there was an elf around but first I had to survive the encounter.

A few moments passed in absolute near unbearable silence when the elf finally spoke.

"Uhm, why would I want to kill you? And why are you panicking so much?" She said with a fair bit of obvious confusion in her voice.

"B-be-because y-you a-are an e-e-el-elf. Y-you kill h-humans then drink their blood and eat their souls." The last words I whispered.

She giggles at this making almost all colour drain from my face. This is it Siesta you are going to die here at the hands of this elf and there is nothing you can do about it. Then the elf spoke up with clear amusement in her voice.

"Seriously what kind of weird twisted perception do you guys have about us elves here, one might think you think us daemons or vampires." Then I felt her hands under my shoulders and she lifted me back up, again with her surprising strength, and I was again face to face with her, and she still had that warm smile on her face, in fact she looks even more amused now than before.

"So you are not going to drink my blood or eat my soul" I asked slowly as she removed her hands from me

"I can tell you this for a fact neither i nor any other elf that I know, with the exception of actual vampire elves or mad men... err... elves, have ever drank the blood or eaten the soul of another sentient creature." She said putting her hand over her heart "In fact i know quite allot of elves and half-elves me included who would kill such individuals on sight and the rest would scorn them."

She doesn't seem like the elves I heard of in legend. She seems actually quite nice.

I was pulled out of my musing when she started talking again "Where are my manners my name's Raskreia, Rask for short if you would rather"

I hesitated a moment before I to gave my name "My name is Siesta von Tarbes, Nice to meet you Ms. Raskreia. If I may ask what are you doing here" Oh dear, bad Siesta, don't ask the elf questions.

"Ah that, right, i was summoned earlier today actually, by a girl named Louise, and decided to stick around for now, oh and I'm supposed to do her laundry." She said picking up a small laundry basket "Speaking of which, could you show me around a bit if you are not to busy I would like to get to know the place a bit."

That caught me off guard a bit, an elf was summoned and no word was said? Would this not have spread like wildfire?

"I have to do the nobles laundry but afterwards I can lead you around. I-if that is alright with you."

"Sure thing." She said and made to follow after me. After we entered the courtyard she just stood there for a moment looking at the moons, an that that moment she looked like some kind of fairy from legend. What with the moonlight practically reflecting off of her hair, and that dreamy look on her face, and her almost glowing eyes, seriously what is with those eyes.

The moment did not last very long as she broke the silence herself. "What a beautiful night, the fact that this world has two moons makes it even better." She said with what I'm going to call her 'Raskreia smile' on her face.  
"Yes tonight is very nice" I agreed. And then something registered in my brain which did not a moment before "wait what do you mean 'this world'? "

She had a cheeky smile this time "Oh, right. I come from another world, so really all that I said about elves only really applies to my worlds elves now that I think about it"

I can only imagine how my face must have looked like as Raskreia started to laugh after she took a look at me.

"Oh, by Torag's bushy beard, your face just now was priceless." She said wiping a tear from the corner of her eye. "Oh dear, how I missed such reactions, my friends build up an immunity to these things."

She then sat down next to the fountain. Her friends have build up an immunity to reality crushing revelations? I cant say I envy them. After a short moment of just standing there flabbergasted I went over to her and started doing the laundry alongside her.

After a short while of silence my curiosity got the better of me. "So, um. Where do you come from?"

She looked at me for a short moment then replied "Do you want to know where I was born and lived or do you want to know where I got summoned from, cause those are two VERY different places." Both sound like things I would like to know about and she seemed to pick up on this. She gave me a short smile then looked up at the sky before continuing.

"My world is know as Golarion, my home is on the continent of Avistan, one of the eight continents of the world each spanning thousands of miles across." Thousands of miles? I can hardly even imagine such distances.

"The country I lived in is called Varisia, which was formally part of the Cheliaxian Empire. Varisia split of the Chelixian empire as they did no agree with the… political state of it. In Varisia now lives a plethora of races in relative harmony with each other. Humans, elves, dwarves, even some orc's and goblins here and there tough they are a bit more rare, and some other more exotic races." A perk up at this "Exotic races?" I ask.

"Well technically its not very nice calling them that but there is just no better way of describing them, but I presume you wanted me to list some, right?" I nod "Right, we have things like kitsune, basically fox people. Then we have undine's, ifrit's, sylf's and oread's they are water, fire, wind and earth elves respectively. Also we have Tiefling's and aasimar like myself." I shoot her a questioning look at that "Aasimar? Like yourself? I tought you were an elf."

"Well yes and no. I might call myself an elf but in truth I'm only really 1/4 elf, and 1/4 aasimar. Aasimar aren't a race as such, just like tiefling's our polar opposites if you will."

"Okay now you got me confused, what do you mean not a real race and polar opposites to tiefling's" I can already feel a headache trying to form

"Alright! Here is how it works, at least how I was told it works, you know how ceartain traits can be passed down from generation to generation?" I nod "Right. Tiefling's and aasimar ARE such a trait it may lay dormant within a family for generations and just suddenly pop up randomly. While this is not such a big problem for us aasimar, as we are often looked upon as a blessing, while, tiefling's are looked upon as a curse, tough I say that's just stupid we are no more a blessing or a curse, respectively, than any other child."

"Why are you considered a blessing?"

"Slow down I was getting to that. Where was I? Right! The aasimar 'trait' is gained through dealings with celestials such as angel's or other such creatures this can happen either through well… an angle having a child with a mortal, or just a gift from such a creature."

My eyes widen at that. Her family has dealt with angels? This sounds like something from a fairy tale.

"Wait you said that aasimar are related to angels. And that tiefling's are in a way your polar opposites. Does that mean… oh dear!" The mere implication of this makes me shudder.

"You catch on quick, I like that. Tiefling's had contact with demonic creatures at some point in their ancestry. They do often look it as well poor sods, if you ever see one of them, don't judge them for what they are, they can often be very damaged individuals" She said with a sad look on her face.

I was a bit taken back by this "I can imagine, having to pay for the sins of ones ancestor, yet having done nothing wrong yourself cant be nice." I hope I put the right words to it.

Then I remembered something Raskreia said earlier. "Wait. You said you are 1/4 aasimar earlier and 1/4 elf? What is the other half."

She looked at me then blinked. Once. Twice. "Did I say that? Huh. I must be getting rusty. Well what ever cant take back what is already said. Ill tell you if you promise me you wont tell anyone else, I want to wait a bit till I reveal this one." She grinned like a child. What IS she tough what can be more bizarre than being an elf with angelic ancestry? I want to know tough and she seems nice enough. I guess I can keep a secret, I mean, I hope I can.

"Fine, I Promise I will do my best to keep it a secret, tough I fail to see how it can be a bigger deal than what you already told me."

Her grin only widened. And then she changed. Not all that much mind you but it was obvious.

There she was, fiery red 10 inch long horns protruding out of her head, gold scaled fins instead of her elven ears, the same scales covered her forearms, ending in sharp looking claws, there were also some of them on her cheeks. Furthermore she now had a gold scaled tail and wings. Her Grin looked more predatory now, which was probably caused by the fact that her teeth are those of one.

"Wha-What are you?" I started to shout but caught myself remembering my promise to keep he secret.

She kept grinning like a child in a candy store. "A Darasv" That word sounded very… powerful for a lack of a better word, more like a growl or roar "Or a Half-Dragon, in case you don't speak draconic."

If it could my jaw would have hit the floor at this point, forget what I said earlier this is truly the icing on the cake. All I could do was stare at her and babble incomprehensibly.

"A-a-a h-h-h-half dr-dragon? How is that even possible?!" I mean really how? Dragons are just beasts who would willingly… go to bed with a dragon. Unless it wasn't willingly… oh my.

"Don't know why but apparently dragons can reproduce with pretty much anything as long as intercourse I physically possible." She said shrugging

"So your mother had a dragon as a lover, cant say I understand."

"Yep." Oh! Oh dear. "Funny story actually my mother didn't even know he was a dragon until I was about to be born. Father told me he had never hear anyone cursing so vividly about horns before in his life. Great man otherwise, taught me everything I needed to know about magic before I left home to adventure and gather my own experience"

* * *

Raskreia's point of view

* * *

'Okay. Thats a complete lie right there, but it would not do to tell her that my mother is the goddes Iomedae. Who knew she had a thing for gold dragons? That 'little' fact would make me look crazy. Well its not like im particularly proud of it so it doesnt matter all that much. Besides its not like i got any bloody divinity from her asside from a bit of celestial blood'

* * *

Siesta's point of view

* * *

"Okay two question, first of what do you mean she didn't know he was a dragon, second he taught you magic?"

"Well older dragons can take on pretty much any form they want, he so happened to be an elf at the time he met my mother, and things worked out for them, obviously. As to your second question, yes he taught me, he is one of the greatest mages in our world. Might come from the fact that he is over four thousand years old." With that sentence she put the last piece of clothing back into the basket, and stood up to stretch her arms and wings, that's going to take a bit of getting use to.

I'm just gonna stop asking questions at this point it just yield's more questions rather than answers. I will just have to accept this and move on. Maybe I can ask her about this at another time. She then wished me a good night and left after thanking me for showing her to the fountain and for having a chat with her.

* * *

 **I just realized after writing this that I filled the entire damn chapter with just siesta talking to Rask and from Siestas point of view as well. Oh what ever.**

 **Also I made a mistake in an earlier chapter: "Disguise self" is just an illusion it is not physical hence Raskreia is using "Alter self" instead provided from a handy dandy "Greater hat of disguise". Hurray for magic items.**

 **This is an old character of mine and she has a veritable arsenal of magic items in her bag of holding. Crafting op. She knows how to make the following: Wonderous items, rings, and rods and wands.**

 **These are her stats if anyone is interested:**

 **Level 20 half-dragon aasimar sorcerer**

 **Str: 16**

 **Dex: 10**

 **Con:20**

 **Int:16**

 **Wis:14**

 **Cha: 30**


	4. Chapter 4- To abbadon and back

Raskreia's point of view: Tristain academy of magic corridors

* * *

That was certainly fun, I love turning peoples perspective of reality around.

I'm sure I'm forgetting something again… oh right! Disguise, **"Alter self"**.

Now there stood again a very much human looking Raskreia.

"Whoever invented these hats deserves a prize." She mused to herself

But I'm sure there was something else. Oh well cant be that important.

* * *

Readers point of view: Raskreia's private demi-plane

* * *

Around a table there are three quite concerned adventurers hunched over a map of golarion and the commonly known planes of existence.

Thorgal spoke up first "Lets go through the events of what happened again. Raskreia invited us over for a celebration of fifty years of knowing each other. She then starts to talk, stops abruptly and states that she hears a voice, starts backing up into a wall where a portal then forms and she walks right into it. Did I miss anything?"

"Nope, pretty much spot on, this is really a Raskreia thing to happen isn't it" Stated Zarhon with a smirk.

Thorgal shot a look at Zarhon before turning to Kwalin "Have you tried contacting her yet?"  
"Sorry lad, I have not prepared any communication spells today. Tough at least we know she is not dead. Yet at the very least." He stated with a grim smile.

"Yeah, she would be back by now if that were the case. Damn clone spell is just an unfair advantage for a spell-caster to have, who even makes scrolls of that bloody spell."

"So she is either fine or captured, and knowing Raskreia its probably the former and she just forgot to inform us, would be quite typical of her" Zarhon stated. He is probably the closest of the three to Raskreia's mindset, and he knows that he very well might forget to do the same.

He was after all also the one who thought it a great idea to take a midnight flight on his bad during a tornado. Which ended with a dead bat and his pockets quite a bit lighter from the cost of a raise dead spell.

* * *

Meanwhile with Raskreia

* * *

"*Achoo*, someone must be talking about me." Said a certain dragon-girl happily strolling back to her "master's" room.

* * *

Back in the mansion

* * *

"Why do I feel like that is exactly what is going on" Said the dwarf massaging his temples "Either way I'm going to contact her tomorrow morning then we will know forcertain. And by Torag if this is indeed the case I will have to slap some sense into that air-head, dragon-father or not."

* * *

Abbadon: Reader's point of view

* * *

A pink haired girl is lying on the edge of a cliff surrounded by endless wasteland. Suddenly the girls eyes snap open.

"Where am I?" Is the first thing she thought, followed by "OH GOD! Cliff!"

She took stock of where she was, nothing but dusty rock and dead trees, and the canyon she is next to. Then she heard sounds of steel clashing against steel and explosions, then roars of something that simply cant be natural. From the canyon below.

"A battle? Here? " she said softly. Looking over the edge she saw a sight of something that made her heart skip a beat. Four people fighting a small horde of monsters lead by one bigger one that seem to have escaped from some nightmare.

Two of the combatant stood in front blocking passage for the beasts to their two other companions, both wore a set of plate armour, one was clearly taller than the other, it was hard to tell from this far up but there was at least two feet of difference between them. Yet both were holding their own against these creatures to almost equal measure.

The taller of the two was fighting with a flaming silvery-green sword and a tower-shield of the same colour and was clad in spiked plate of yet again the same colour steel(?). Occasionally he would light up for a short moment when he was having difficulties, and start fighting with renewed vigour. He fought with a sort of grace, and from time to time the monsters seemed almost afraid of him.

While the shorter of the two fought using a war hammer of the same colour as the taller persons gear, aside from that he wore a normal looking set of plate. But what caught her eye was his shield it was complete and utter pure white, it seemed perfect in every way. Where the other person fought with grace he fought with pure, unrelenting fury, throwing what she could only assume to be curses at the monsters. But what caught her off guard was the fact that he seemed to cast magic to hold the beasts at bay.

She looked over the monsters they were fighting, and gulped. The smaller ones were some kind of humanoid three legged birds with clawed arms instead of wings. Their heads were that of vultures with a long tentacle instead of a tongue the had long feathers they wore almost like clothing.

The bigger one on the other hand was a tall lanky vaguely humanoid looking thing. It had a slightly elongated snout and dagger-like teeth in its mouth, and a set of very long spiked mandibles. Its eyes look empty, and its skin was a parts purple, parts red and other parts blue. From its back grew a number of tentacles. Its long purple tail was longer than it was tall wich it used like some sort of whip.

The most dangerous part about it tough seemed to be its claws on both arms and feet, they were long enough to be called short-swords.

Looking back at the other two fighter she saw one was male the other was female.

The male of the two was equipped in a… Tuxedo and top hat? And assisted by… playing a fiddle… with his tail and left hand? WHAT!? To his credit it was a very nice melody that almost made her want to join the battle, but how is that helping? Then with a swish of his hand one of the monsters that was approaching him and the woman stopped moving altogether, before being finished off by… a swarm of monkeys? Alright next person, enough crazy.

Taking a closer look at the last person she saw that it was in fact her familiar. "What is that stupid familiar doing fighting without my permission? She could die, and then my only success would be dead!" She shouted looking for a way down into the canyon, when she saw none she planned on blasting the creatures from here, but that plan also fell in the water when she noticed she was only in her night gown and did not have her wand with her.

She then took a closer look at her familiar again, she definitely the same person, yet different. For starters she had horns, wings, a tail, and claws. She is wearing the same robe she was when she was summoned but it was now glowing slightly in a soft orange, and looked almost as if it was on fire, which might very well be the case since she was flinging fire around like it was candy. She had a number of crystals tied to her waist one of which she took off.

She proceeded to chant what appeared to be as spell, and summoned a creature MADE out of fire, which then proceeded to throw itself into the fray. Three of the beasts ran past the two warriors, taking the blows they got for that action as price for the head of her familiar. But to of them just fell into a hole that appeared out of nowhere, and judging by the howls of pain coming from it, it cant be pleasant.

The last of the three almost made it to her but just turned to ash after being hit by some kind of green ray coming from her familiars finger. Louise blinked a few moments "Is that really the same woman I summoned this afternoon."

This combat lasted for no more than a minute after that, but the big thing, whatever it was took an ungodly amount of beating by fire, sword, mace and… monkey's (?) before it finally died.

She then woke up, but not before hearing her familiar say "Well that was certainly a thing, gotta love abbadon. What's next?"

* * *

The next morning: TAoM (Tristain academy of magic) Louise's room: Louise's point of view

* * *

Where am I? Oh thank Brimir I'm in my room!

A million and a half questions were buzzing through my head.

What was that place? How did I get there? What were those nightmarish creatures? Who were those people with my familiar? Why was that man playing a fiddle in the middle of combat? What was my familiar doing there? Why were there monkeys? Was that really just a dream?

I will get my answers out of that stupid familiar of an elf, but first… breakfast!


	5. Chapter 5

TAoM: Louise's point of view

* * *

That sure was a weird dream, I will have to ask my familiar about that later just to be sure.

Speaking of her, where is that elf?

Looking around I quickly spot her in the corner of my room were I have laid out the stack of hay, only she is still sleeping, in a very decorated bedroll. Where did she get that from? She did not have it on her when she was summoned. Did she steal it?

More importantly why is she still asleep as a familiar its her duty to wake me up in the morning.

Its time to punish this unruly familiar, and I have thankfully bought just the think for it in case the familiar I summoned misbehaved. Quickly going over to my night stand I pull out the riding crop I bought just for this kind of situation.

I quietly move over to my familiar and check if she is still asleep, and she indeed is, no one can make such a peaceful face other when asleep. But damn she is just so cute when she is asleep, I don't want to wake her up. Wait! Where did that thought come from suddenly?

Doesn't matter time to wake her up.

But as the Riding crop is about to hit her, her eyes suddenly snap open and she grabs my arm stopping it dead in its tracks, seriously what is with her strength, she looks about as weak as me. And how did she wake up so suddenly? I would have kept on rambling questions through my head if she did not pull me out of my musing

"Uh. Good morning, been a while since someone woke me up trying to attack me." She said as she sat up and released my hand.

"How did you do that?" I ask still slightly baffled at my familiars reaction.

"Do what exactly?" She asks as she sits down on a chair and starts combing her hair with a ivory, well, comb that she has pulled out from somewhere.

"How you reacted so quickly to me trying to hit you?" I said the last few words a bit more quiet then the first. "I was certain you were asleep."

"You deducted correctly I was asleep, right until you tried to hit me." She said still combing her hair, which might I add might just be taken care of more than even my own by its looks, making my eyes widen at the implication. "How?" I think out loud.

"Well its a mixture of being an adventurer for quite a few years and hyper sensitive senses. When you have adventured as much as I or my friends you develop a quite light sleep, and you just 'feel' when you should probably wake up." 'Also having Draconic blindsense does little to harm me' She tought to herself. By the end of that sentence she finished combing her hair. "Now, where is my hair band." She says that and I automatically look around for the object she is looking for, as you usually do when someone says he is looking for something, and I do in fact spot something that looks like I could be a hair band on the pillow of her bedroll.

I reach down to grab it, surprised by the texture of it. It has a sort of metallic cool to it yet feels as softer than any cloth I have ever felt, it was also heavier than any cloth that size has any right to be. "Is this what you are looking for?" She looks over, smiles and nods "Ah yes, thank you!"

"What is that thing made of? It didn't quite feel like cloth." I ask her as she quickly ties her hair into a her ponytail.

"I made it out of adamantine and mithral fibres, I was getting annoyed with normal hair bands as they always broke at the most inopportune moments." She said matter of fact like, as if I'm supposed to know what any of that means as she mentally added 'Its also quite heavily enchanted, but she doesn't need to know that'

"Adamantine? Mithral? What is that I have never heard of such cloths." I ask as Raskreia is now quickly and efficiently filling her nails with some kind of black, slightly oversized, file. "Are they cloths from your home?"

"Yes, but they are actually not cloth" I raise my eyebrow at that. "They are metals. Adamantine is a rare metal that weighs the same as steel yet is approximately 3 times as hard, it also is worth around 6 times as much as gold, not including the price to work such a stubborn metal. While mithral is a greenish-silver coloured metal that is about twice as hard as steel while weighing only half as much."

That made me think, both of those metals sounds like excellent material to make weapons or armour out of especially this 'mithral', even if 'adamantine' costs as much as it does. Now that I think about it did those people in my dream not have allot of equipment made out of mithral.

Should not be too expensive if my stupid familiar uses it in a bloody hair band of all things.

As I am thinking about this Rask continues "Also mithral is extremely rare and sometimes confused with silver, hence it is priced around 10 times the price of gold. It was such a pain to work those fibres by the way." I can only nod dumbly at this. I need to stop talking to her its just going to shatter my reality piece by piece.

"Oh yeah, isn't this a school? Don't you have classes?" She asks having finished her morning routine, I on the other hand am still only combing my hair.

"No, today the second years are given time to bond with their familiars."

"Awesome, didn't feel like classes today anyway, could we start this 'bonding' at breakfast tough, haven't eaten anything since last morning, you summoned me just as I was about to ea- draaf (shit)" She suddenly goes wide eyed and some strange word that almost seems animalistic "Well, Kwalin is going to skin me alive for this"

"What? Why, what is going on and who is Kwalin?" no one will skin my familiar alive but me. Not that I have any reason to do so.

"Kwalin is an old friend of mine, as to what is going on. You kinda sorta maybe summoned me as me and my friends met up and were about to have dinner. And I may or may not have forgotten to inform them that I am in fact not currently being eaten alive by demons or the like." She states while pacing around the room. And then suddenly goes stock still with a very worried sort of expression.

"Kwalin! Buddy, how are you, quite early in the morning for you to contact me isn't" She says to thin air with a nervous smile. Great now she lost it.

"Who are you talking to? There is no one here!" She just waves me of. How dare she! "Hey I'm talking to you!" She keeps ignoring me, right riding crop it is.

"Yes I know that I should have contacted you. Yes I know you were worried for me but I'm fine. This place might actually be some fun, so I will stick around for a bit. I'm sorry again for not contacting you immediately, ill make it up to you guys." She continues talking to nothing while dodging all of my swings. But at the end she just stops and smiles at the ceiling, making me hit her square in the face.

"Ow, what was that for?" Raskreia asks while rubbing her nose a little.

"That's for ignoring me." I state as I turn to leave out of my room "Now lets go its getting late, and I don't want to miss breakfast."

* * *

Private demi-plane: Readers point of view

* * *

Thorgal and Zarhon are patiently waiting for Kwalin to come out of his spell induced trance with which he is communicating with Raskreia.

After about a minute of waiting the dwarf stands up and wipes some sweat from his brow.

"By my beard I hate maintaining inter-planar communication. Anyways, I have good news and bad news, which do you want first?"

"Give us the good news first." Asks Thorgal already ready to plunge head first into the depths of the abyss to save his long time friend.

"Good news is, Raskreia is safe and sound. She is actually intending to stay where ever she currently is for the moment." Says Kwalin as Thorgal and Zarhon both let out a sigh of relief.  
Thorgal because a friend is safe, and Zarhon because he does not have to jump into a possible life or death situation. "And the bad news?" Asks the bard.

Kwalin now makes a very grim face, making the other two worried again. As he slowly says.

"You see… Raskreia… Is still as much an idiot as when we first met her" And with that the three of them start laughing, remembering some of the things their eccentric dragon friend has done.

After they have stopped laughing Zarhon speaks up "Sooo… what do we do?"

Kwalin was the next to speak up "Well I for one intend to go back to my forge, If the lass calls for my or our help I will go but other than that I see no reason to."

"Then I to will go back to my duties." Thorgal states now seated on a couch and drinking recently served tea.

"I for one would love to go to this world, as such could I request a gate to said world from you Kwalin? If I remember correctly you have it prepared in case we had to rescue Raskreia, you are not going to use it anyway otherwise." The bard asks now too enjoying the served tea.

Kwalin folds his arms to reply. "And what would you be doing there, if this humble vending machine for spells may ask."

"To do bard things, of course. Spread my music, gather new and newer heard before lore. You know that sort of thing. There is no harm in it now is there."

The dwarf strokes his beard at this. "I suppose there is no harm in it, alright step right up." He states and starts chanting a spell and after he says the word **"Gate"** a circular portal of energy opens in front of the dwarf and the tiefling quickly steps trough and the portal closes behind him.

Thorgal takes a sip from his tea. "You sent him into the middle of nowhere didn't you?" He states with a neutral expression.

And Kwalin replies with an equally neutral one "Oh I'm sure he simply loves forests"

After a moment they both smile at the thought of a certain bard now probably cursing in all the languages of the lower planes.

* * *

TAoM: Readers point of view

* * *

As Louise and Raskreia left for the dining hall they ran into a certain red head and her pet salamander.

"Louise, good morning, and I see your familiar is still with you. I must admit she is quite something to look, at but nothing in comparison to my Flame" She motions to the salamander next to her and the other two can only think 'She named her salamander Flame?'.

She then turns toward Raskreia. "How much is she paying you to play the roll of her familiar then?"

Raskreia could see that Louise was about to snap at the red head so she quickly tried to defuse the situation.

"I thank you for the compliment on my looks, but I can assure you that Louise here has quite legitimately summoned me, or how else would you explain the runes which I have been, quite painfully I might add, branded after the so called "ritual of binding." Raskreia stated with a innocent smile "Besides how would I have made it into the centre of the summoning circle without anyone noticing? I'm just a commoner after all." It would have taken an inquisitor to see through Raskreia's lie.

Louise seemed still a bit angry but calmed down considerably when she noticed that this had struck the red head silent.

"But where are my manners. My name is Raskreia Darastrix (Dragon) , may I know yours?" Raskreia said to the red head with a voice that could make sirens jealous.

That seemed to snap the red head out of it as she quickly introduced herself. "You certainly may, my name is Kirche Augusta Frederica Von Anhalt-Zerbst"

"A pretty name for a pretty woman. Now while it was a pleasure having met you Louise and I were just on the way to the dining hall. And both her and me would just hate being late, so I'm sorry to say that we must bid you farewell for now." At that she starts walking with Louise quickly trying to catch up again.

After they are out of earshot Louise confronts Raskreia "Why were you so polite to that Zerbst, when you have been anything but to me?" There was a clear hint of annoyance in her voice.

Raskreia pays it little mind as she answers "Well two reasons: first its always better to make allies rather than enemies, you should keep that one in mind. You will make enemies even without trying, so actually going out of ones way to make an enemy should be avoided."

That made Louise think a little, she could see the reasoning in those words. "And the second reason?"

"I just didn't feel like listening to you two arguing over petty little insults and jabs at ones pride so early in the morning." She looked at Louise with a sheepish smile on her face.


	6. Chapter 6

TAoM: Readers point of view

* * *

Louise and Raskreia are making their way toward the dining hall through the mazelike structure of the academy with Louise in the lead.

On the was there they are walking in silence, other students are either ignoring them or sending jabs toward Louise, who seems to be ignoring them to the best of her ability.

Raskreia on the other hand is spending her time taking in the school for what it is during daytime. She honestly thinks that this would be more fitting as a palace, or a very pretty maze, rather than a school, but hey, to each its own She did hear things like "How much is she paying you?" or some catcalls but Raskreia has long gotten used to such things, and getting aggravated over them brings nothing.

After a good five minute walk they reached what looks to be a grand hall. Taking a look around Raskreia spots a big group of animals of to the left side of the hall on a small field, and maids laying out different kinds of food for different familiars, presumably to see what kind of food each of them wants to eat for future reference.

There was also that blue dragon a again, but judging that she hasn't eaten or electrocuted anyone yet Raskreia wrote her down as potentially not evil, now would a great time for the ability to detect evil, but that's Thorgal's thing.

Then Louise pulled Raskreia out of her musing "This is Alvis dining hall, it was made by square class mages ages ago upon the founding of the school, it is named after the Alvis statues that come to life at night to dance."

That last part caught Raskreia's attention "Do they do anything else other than dance?"

"No, should they?" was Louise's simple answer.

Then Louise pushed open the doors to the dining hall. "You should be grateful normally commoners are not allowed into the dining hall, only nobles are allowed in here. I had to pull some strings to allow you to enter." Raskreia then promptly ignored all the servants in the hall as they clearly did not exist.

Raskreia upon taking a look around noted the decadence that filled this place. Amounts of food that could easily feed a group of four people if not more is laid out in front of single children, and unless they have some kind of extradimensional storage method in their stomachs she doubted they could eat even half of it. Servants are being treated as if they were air, not a single ounce of respect or acknowledgement of even their existence is being shown, and she doubted that would stay that way if the servants so much as even thought of making a mistake.

The hall itself was quite big, bigger than would really be necessary, even if the purpose is to show off. There were three very long tables arranged along the length of the hall. Which judging by the fact that each table had a differently coloured cape wearing group of children sitting on at it probably were used to divide students by something. Probably what year they are in.

The top floor housed the teachers happily chatting among each other. Which Raskreia deducted by spotting the same teacher that was present during the summoning.

"So what do you think about this? I'm sure you must be amazed, havent seen anything like this have you?" Louise stated looking up at Raskreia in anticipation of a reaction

"It is impressive, I give you that." Raskreia said making Louise puff her rather unimpressive chest in what seemed like pride. "Tough I have seen places like these before already, doesn't make it less impressive however."

Louise stopped walking next to a seat at the middle table and waited expectantly for something, which Raskreia simply ignored and sat down in the seat next to her and started eating a nearby piece of bread 'Heh, the cooks in this place are nothing to scoff at if this bread is anything to go by' thought Raskreia as she heard her little 'master' clear her throat next to her.

Raskreia quickly swallowed what was left in her mouth to ask the girl what she wanted and why she was still standing "Yes? Something wrong, the food is right here."

Louse got an angry tick as she grit out "You were supposed to pull out my seat for me to sit down. An also only nobles are allowed to eat at the table, your food is down there." She stated pointing at a plate with some form of gray liquid and a small piece of bread.

Raskreia then noted the looks of distaste she was earning and hear comments like "Why is that commoner eating at the table?" or "Can't The Zero control her familiar?" Promptly tuning those voices out she turned to Louise.

"No on both accounts, I will not eat on the floor, and neither will I eat," She pointed at the plate on the floor "whatever that is. I wouldn't even feed that to an Othyug, and no I'm not going to tell you what that is, as that is not something to discuss in a dining hall, and quite frankly I don't think you want to know either." Raskreia stated while standing up "But I can tell that I am not wanted here, and I would just hate to ruin breakfast for you oh so glorious nobles, I will be outside if you need me." She stated leaving before Louise could reply.

* * *

TAoM: readers point of view

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Raskreia did not like being treated like a pet, in fact she was just about to break the "contract" and leave via "gate". The only reason why she did not do so is because she wanted to have a bit more fun in this new world she was pulled into.

Back home things were somewhat boring lately. Even with the ability to warp reality to ones whim via the medium of magic, and being somewhat good at it if she may say so herself, Golarion really is not a place which is safe to be travelled alone. Tough sadly all of her friends are busy with… things. Well except Zarhon, but she will be damned if she were to travel alone with him again, as the last time ended with a massive alcohol induced headache and her (unofficially) married to a goldfish named Jonathan.

Besides, nobles were usually like this even back home, treating others, that are "lesser" than them, like shit.

Provided of course they did not currently need some adventurers to clear out a cave full of primordial horrors from another plane of existence. Or if the knew that said "lesser" person is absolutely filthy rich, has considerable sway in the country, and is the daughter of a dragon dragon.

She has dealt with enough stuck up nobles to get over their act for the most part.

"Well that was a thing." Raskreia mused. Thinking about what to do she looked around and saw the place where the familiar's were playing, eating or sleeping. Seeing how it was a very nice day outside she decided to sit down leaning against a tree overlooking the field with the familiars. Raskreia sat there for a moment then pulled out a small pouch from around her neck and whispered "Nif" open then proceeded to stick her arm into the entirely to small pouch when she pulled it back out she was holding strips of meat in her hands.

"Heh, gotta love having everything you could ever need on hand, extradimensional storage is probably the best thing ever." She said taking a bite out of the dried meat and laying down completely to fully bask in the sun.

She lay there a good few minutes tuning out completely and enjoying the warm sun when she felt the presence of someone, or rather several someones approaching her.

Sitting up and turning towards the ones moving towards her she spots a duo of children coming her way. The first being a chubby kid with blonde hair and blue eyes, who wore the standard uniform for students. And the second a much slimmer blond haired boy with also blue eyes. He is wearing a white frilly shirt with the first few buttons undone giving him a very flamboyant look. After a moment Raskreia Recognized the second of the pair as the boy she saw while walking around school last night.

"You there commoner," Says the Zarhon imitation pointing the rose he has been holding down at her, well, down being relative as even sitting down Raskreia is still up to the boys chest "Your behaviour in the hall earlier was very inappropriate. And since I doubt The Zero has the ability to put you straight it falls upon the rest of us nobles to put you, as a commoner, back into your place and teach you some manners."

It took Raskreia a fair bit of willpower to not either roll her eyes or laugh at the fop of a noble trying to be intimidating to her, which quite obviously had no effect whatsoever on her. But she managed to keep a straight face to reply "What kind of punishment awaits me for the sins I have committed?" The fop either not caring or ignoring the sarcasm in her words struck a pose to continue with his speech, by now there are a few students gathering around to watch what they might have hoped to be an uppity commoner being put back into her place. "You shall kiss my shoes as an apology, as well as that of every student that was in the dining hall during your outburst." Raskreia's face grew completely blank in what the fop probably must have thought was fear or shame, or some similar emotion, yet it was anything but.

Raskreia took a moment to calm herself as to not accidentally breathe out any fire, before speaking again. This time however there was no warmth in her voice at all, gone was the usual cheer in her voice, and all who heard her speak at this moment felt a chill go down their spine. "Okay, now listen here kid. Hell would have to freeze over before I kiss any of your peoples shoes, I have my pride and it would cost you more than you would like to know for me to simply throw it away. Furthermore I will tell you now, and you best remember, I hold absolutely no respect for people like you, who think themselves above common folk, and treat people who are "beneath" them worse than the dirt under their shoes. Now, unless you have anything else to say to me that is not downright insulting or aggravating to hear I would suggest you take your leave." Somewhere during her speech Raskreia stood up so that she could look down on the noble while she stared directly into his eyes.

To his credit the noble did not seem to be all that fazed by the 5'10'' woman staring him down, or by her cold in her voice, he stood his ground instead and inwardly Raskreia had to give this kid some credit for staying so calm under her eyes. Inwardly Guiche was scared of this woman. She seemed to radiate some kind of power and he could only now feel it after looking into her eyes. Yet he was a noble he could not show any weakness, not when he was being watched by so many, what sort of noble would he be if he backed away from a mere commoner, so he did the only thing he could think to do. "Such insolence from a mere commoner, it seems my earlier punishment will not suffice, I believe I will have to teach you a lesson personally. I hereby challenge you to a duel, by my name of Guiche de Gramont!"

"Done!" Said Raskreia without missing a beat. It again took allot of willpower to not let loose a grin, it has been too long since she could use any of her magic, and teaching some stuck up kids that not all is like it seems is just a added bonus on top of being able to use some of that pent up magic. "When and where?" "We will meet at the Vestri court in 10 minutes, do not be late commoner." The fop, now identified as Guiche turned around with a swish of his cloak and the crowd dispersed, likely to inform their friends of the duel about to happen and go watch.

Raskreia turned around to come face first with Siesta who had a very worried expression on her face. "What are you doing Raskreia? You just got into a fight with a noble! What will you do if you get hurt or worse, get killed?" Raskreia on the other hand could only smile "Him? Kill me? He is a good hundred years too early for that. Don't you worry about my well being. That aside could you show me the way to the Vestri court?"

* * *

10 minutes later at the Vestri court

* * *

On the field of the Vestri court was a gathering of many students here to most likely see a noble show off in front of a commoner. "I commend you commoner for showing up, I thought you would run away with your tail tucked between your legs." Guiche said doing one of his poses holding his rose. Raskreia was going to say something but got interrupted before she could even utter a single word by a familiar pink haired girl.

"Familiar!" Louise came pushing her way through the crowd of students to stop in front of Raskreia between her and Guiche. "Familiar, apologize to Guiche right now you cant fight him!" "If she were to apologize to me now, and admit that she is a lowly commoner and go through with her earlier punishment I might consider it. Provided that you, Louise, also admit to being a failure as a mage and to hiring some commoner to act as your familiar."

With those words out of Guiche's mouth Louises face went from a worried expression to one of cold fury. "Alright, I'm sorry for interrupting. Familiar you may proceed, just don't kill him." Raskreia gave her a grin now understanding why Louise did not want her to fight against Guiche, she was worried she might kill him. "Don't worry, I don't kill kids. Teaching them manners is another thing entirely."

Guiche still had his cocky smile on his face when he said "You don't seem to be worried about your familiar. Do you honestly believe a commoner could defeat a mage like me?" Louise only half turned to reply. "A commoner? No. Her? Most likely. We will see."

"The Zero thinks you have a chance to defeat me commoner. Let me show you why that trust is misplaced." "Ye, ye, but can we add a condition to this duel in addition to me having to apologize if I lose? That the looser has to do any one thing the winner says?" Guiche pondered this for a moment, but considering that he had as good as already won against a commoner he really didn't have to loose with this condition. "Very well commoner." I swished his rose and a single petal fell off which upon hitting the ground started glowing bright white and turned into a female shaped figure made of bronze and also holding a bronze two-handed sword. "My name is Guiche, and my runic name is the bronze, as such this bronze valkyrie shall be your opponent."

Raskreia seemed nonplussed much to the surprise of the audience and Guiche. "You could have told me this was a duel of summons. *sigh* Oh well." Guiche's confidence only grew at what he assumed to be confusion or fear "Getting scared already commoner? I expected at least some token resistance from the way you behaved till now." Rask now actually looked a little confused "No, not at all. I just don't particularly like battling with summons I just don't get anything to do." Now it was Guiche's turn to look confused.

But confusion was soon joined by shock when the familiar in front of him started to do a short chant, in a language he has never heard before, but it sounded ancient, for the lack of a better word, and move her hands around making flames appear on her finger tips and a set of runes he has never before seen beneath her feet.

"Ixen nymuer sia relgr vur tyrtrol. Spol sia katima ekess korinth duulo acht wer mablik treskri." Fire hear my call and obey. Send my servant to rage freely upon the mortal world.

Raskreia loved casting spells, especially when they had something to do with fire. It just felt so natural to her, like its what she is supposed to be doing. As soon as her spell was finished she pointed her finger, and with it the small flame maybe the size of an acorn, toward the ground in front of her. When she did that the small flame flew towards the indicated spot on the ground between Raskreia and her opponent, and when it touched the ground it stayed there like that for just a moment.

In that moment the audience and Guiche wondered two things, how the commoner did magic, and how that tiny flame was going to help her. Those wonders were however short lived as the acorn sized flame rapidly expanded into a raging inferno toward the sky, before forming back into a more compact shape of a about 40ft tall flame, which then promptly sprouted a set of two arms and formed something that looked like a head. After another few seconds there "stood" a vaguely humanoid looking 40ft tall solid flame with two arms and what looked like magma forming at the top of its shoulders and on its fingers. This magma also formed on its head to make it look like it had a face. And lastly It also formed its parts of its legs from the same molten rock.

It stood there for a short moment being the centre point of all the shocked looks of the students, the still very shocked but also proud look of Louise, the awed look of Siesta and the intrigued looks of both Kirche and Tabitha. Guiche on the other hand was shaking in fear, he was hiding quite well however. The being then turned towards Raskreia and kneeled before her. This perplexed everyone but that got again replaced by shock when the being spoke in a voice that sounded like a fire that had gone out of control. "What need do you have to summon me mistress? I can seen no danger anywhere." Guiche felt like he was struck by an arrow for not even being considered a threat. Raskreia spoke next "Greetings Ignus. We are here for a duel. Our opponent is that kid over there, your opponent is what ever summons." The being nodded before standing up and turning towards the now very scared Guiche and the much less threatening looking Valkyrie. The being looked down onto its opponents and shrunk down its size to roughly 16ft before it spoke again "This form should be much more appropriate for this fight."

"Now that we both have summoned our combatants can we finally begin?" In an impressive bravery or most probably foolish pride nodded and ordered his valkyrie to attack. The Valkyrie charged forth blade first at the combat ready looking giant, just to completely melt upon first coming into contact with the being made of fire. Ignus looked back at Raskreia in what seemed to be… disappointment? Raskreia just shrugged "If you wanted to have an actual fight maybe you shouldn't have made your flames that hot. Now is that the end of the duel then? Or do you want to drag this out any further?"

"As if I would lose this simply." Guiche yelled frantically swinging his rose around summoning a dozen Valkyries probably hoping to overcome the superior opponent with sheer numbers. In response the being started clawing and smashing at each and every one of the metal figurines, sending chunks of molten bronze flying all over the place and with each felling at least a single one. Those actually succeeding in hitting the giant did no visible damage whatsoever in exchange for having their weapons melted. Guiche tried casting a spell at the giant and threw a small boulder at it when he only hade about five of his golems left. This seemed to do little more than aggravate it. He then heard Raskreia's voice from behind his golems and the giant, surprisingly clearly actually

"Wait. So we can help our summons with further spells? You should have seriously elaborated on these rules a bit more. Alright then 'Chain fire'" after the last words had left her mouth a thick rope of fire shot from her finger racing towards the closest golem. The rope hit the golem square in the chest and burst right through it and seeking out the next golem. This repeated with all five golems that were left before ending its path within Ignus, repairing the minor indentation left by the boulder Guiche left in its chest with the newly added flame. The giant then looked back at his summoner with a look of indignation, well what could pass as one at least. "You really needed not help me mistress. This combat is not worth your time, and quite frankly neither is it worth mine, may I end it now?"

"I yield! You have won just don't burn me." Guiche, who was by now backing up quite a bit, stammered out." Raskreia smiled at him triumphantly. "I accept your surrender". She then turned to Ignus "You may go home Ignus, I am grateful for your troubles." "It is no trouble at all to serve you. And you may call me or my brothers whenever you have need of us. I only hope next time it will be a bigger challenge than this one." And with that the being lost form and the flames spread in all directions before disappearing into nothingness.

Raskreia then turned to the scared witless Guiche who backed away as a response to her approach before stumbling and falling on his behind. She looked down on him still smiling.

"Now for the fulfilment of our agreement. You have to do any one thing I tell you too." Guiche gulped in anticipation of the cruelty this woman might put him under. "You are to stop belittling Louise, and never to call her by any derogatory names. Furthermore, and this is just a tip, accept the fact that just because you born as a noble doesn't mean you should look down on any who are not. You will find that 'commoners' which especially includes your servants are the last people you want to have against you." She then leaned in to whisper in his ear "Trust me on this, assassination by servants is the number one cause of death of unfair rulers where I come from."

Raskreia then hauled Guiche back to his feet, before turning around and leaving back to the place she was sunbathing in earlier. She found it quite easy to get through the crowd as the gob smacked students readily made room for her to pass through. Leaving behind a very happy Louise and Siesta, a intrigued Tabitha, a infatuated Kirche who found someone with a equal or perhaps greater passion than her, and a struck silent crowd of students.


	7. Chapter 7

AN: So hehe… yeah I could make up some shit about how my life was to busy for me to write on this or how I had writers block or some shit. But truth of the matter is that I just flat out did not feel like writing on this. Buuut, I was bored, and suddenly had the urge to write on this shit some more… so yeah. This chapter is however a nice 2000 words longer than the longest chapter i have written before this... so there is that. I will try to update some more.

Also Please note that i made slight edits in (im pretty sure) all previous chapters, Chapter 3 had the biggest edit and its the only one i would urge you to re-read as there is a small tidbit i forgot to include in the original release of that chapter.

* * *

TaoM

* * *

Raskreia after having "fought" her duel against Guiche went right back to where she was lying in the sun earlier, and does just that, as if nothing happened at all. And to her this was hardly anything worth mentioning, as while they are not that common there are certainly a few overeager wizards and sorcerers trying to test their magic against her even back home, Thought they have at least even a basic understanding of just who it is they are challenging. If nothing else people are wary of chalanging a half dragon to any kind of duel, not that people arround here knew that she was one.

Her friends might say she over did things, after all using a summoning spell of the 8th circle and a evocation of the 6th circle against a what amounts to an apprentice mage would seem like way to much even to people of her world, or perhaps especially for people of her world. Raskreia did not care all that much though, she wasn't very good at holding back, she never was and probably never will be, its after all not in the nature of fire to be tame.

Granted that if she expected any combat or danger during later times of the day she would have not used those spells and rather saved them and use much more reasonable lover circle spells. But since that was not the case she held nothing back in teaching a young mage that they are not always correct in the assumptions they make of the world around them, and that even if you perceive someone as weak they can be anything but.

That, and the fact that she loved messing with people. While she expected some form of awe or the like from casting a spell of the 8th circle, which in no way, shape or form was common in her world either, she didn't expect absolutely everyone to look like they have never seen or heard of a fire elemental in their lives before, even IF said elemental was a elder fire-elemental, what the hell did they teach in this school of magic if not about planar beings, as basic knowledge of the planes was just something any self respecting magic user should have. Hell, they divided their magic by the elements so why don't they know about elementals, should that not be one of the first things you learn as a elementalist.

Raskreia was torn out of her musing when she senses a person approaching her. Dragon senses were just awesome at times, blindsense saved her from quite a few ambushes since she developed it. Sitting up straight and she looks over to where she sensed the presence, which turns out to be Louise. Raskreia just smiles as she lays back down onto the grass "Heya, you want to join me? The sun feels great today."

Louise on her part just looked down at her familiar 'why would I want to lay here on the dirty ground? Besides spending too much time in the sun would ruin my fair skin' she thought.

"Familiar. I want to know what all that was about!" She said crossing her arms over her chest.

Raskreia on her part only opens up one of her eyes as an indication that she is paying any attention to what her "master" is saying. "All what was about? You are going to have to be more specific than that."

"All of it! The weird language you chanted your spell in, your magic, that thing you summoned, the magic you used, and where you learned it. All of it." Louise rattled off in annoyance at the fact that Raskreia did not seem to care much at all.

"I would like to hear about this as well." Louise turned around to see who spoke, already suspecting who it is, to see Kirche and Tabitha, who for once was not reading a book.

"What do you want, Zerbst?" Louise ground out.

"I merely want to learn more about your darling Familiar, and so does Tabi over here."

Raskreia raised an eyebrow at the 'darling' and sat up, giving up on the idea of relaxation in the sun. She loved sunbathing, it was in her blood damn it. Dragons might not be cold blooded but damn if they don't like the sun nonetheless as reptiles. Giant, overgrown, magic spewing, hyper-intelligent, super reptiles. But reptiles still.

"Alright, alright, since I wont be able to enjoy the sun until you let me, and I have a feeling that you wont do that until I have satisfied your curiosity ask away." Raskreia said while sitting cross-legged facing the trio of nobles. "But first, to asnwer your question of where i learned my magic, i mostly taught myself, the only teacher i ever had, asside from my father much later after i had already learned all the basics, was the villages, elder -" 'well technically local arch-druid, but they dont need to know that, also why did i tell Siesta that stupid story about how my parents met and i learned magic from them? Thats so going to come back and bite me in the ass' "- who taught me basically only how i can use my magic without blowing myself or anyone else up"

Kirche was the first to ask her question much to the chagrin of Louise "What was that thing you summoned?"

"The 'thing' I summoned was Ignus, and HE is a elder fire-elemental, which in case you don't know is a being made and born off the very essence that is fire upon the elemental plane of fire. And since I know you will follow up the question off 'what' I summoned with 'how', I used magic from my homeland, as to why him specifically, I met him a few years back when I made a trip to the elemental plane of fire to gather some ingredients for a magic item I was crafting, and since then I mostly summon him or his 'brothers' whenever it is I need some friendly fire-elementals summoned." Raskreia said taking short breath in anticipation of the next question.

To the three Nobles this was mind-boggling information, while not unheard off to make a contract with a elemental being, it was usually one where a noble would bring offerings of some sort to such a being or they would solve some kind of task that those beings couldn't do themselves in exchange for small boons, but never something as direct as this. Louise was thinking about what to ask about.

But again Louise was denied her question, but this time by Tabitha who in her usual neutral tone said "Plane of fire?" to which Raskreia raised an eyebrow and Kirche elaborated "She wants to know what you mean by the "Plane of fire"."

"Ah, well the plane of fire is part of the inner planes, and is one of the four prime elemental planes, the others being the planes of water, earth and air. As the name suggests its primarily made out of fire and things that are on fire, but there are spots within it that are livable by humans, if uncomfortably hot for most people. But lets not discuss the different planes now, people can spend their entire lives learning about even one of them." To which Tabitha nodded seemingly satisfied with the answer she got.

Now finally Louise's got a chance to ask a question "Yesterday you talked about schools and circles of magic that your people divide your magic into. Which was the one you used to summon that thi- ehm- Ignus was it? With." 'I'm sure it must be at least a spell of the 9th circle, if not one of those epic spells she didn't tell me anything about, that was certainly something epic to behold' To which to two other Tristainians looked somewhat confused, if expectantly, at Rask.

"That was a Conjuration spell of the summoning sub-school of the 8th Circle by the name of **'Summon monster'**. **'Summon monster'** is a spell that actually has a variation of itself in all 9 circles, it just gains in power as it progresses thought the circles, then again the somatic hand movement is different for each circle." She thought for a moment if she perhaps missed something about explaining the spell but decided that she said everything currently relevant about it.

'Wait so THAT was only a spell of the 8th circle? Brimir's beard what is classified as 9th for them then?' The others on the other hand did not know what was being said and Kirche did not mind voicing said confusion "What is this about schools and circles of magic you are talking about?"

Raskreia looked a bit sheepish for not remembering that the other two that were there were not there for yesterdays explanation of her own magic system. "Alright, let me explain as you were not there yesterday when I explained to Louise how magic works where I come from. You should sit down cause this is going to take a bit. Actually why don't we go to your room Louise." Agreeing to the logic of getting out of the sun and into a comfortable room they went on their way to the aforementioned room. Half way towards the room Raskreia spoted a friend she recently made, Siesta the maid, whom she immediately walks over to "Hey, Siesta, I was just going to explain those three over there how magic in my homeland works, and I was wondering if you want to join us as I'm sure you'd like to hear that too, and quite frankly I don't feel like explaining it twice."

"You think it is okay for me to join you" She looks a bit unsure over Raskreia's shoulder at the three noble girls. "Familiar, Who is this?" Louise ask, "Well this is Siesta, I met her yesterday when you asked me to wash your clothes, id say she could very well become someone I consider a friend, and to answer your question Siesta, yes, yes its fine." She finished by throwing a look at the three behind here that left no argument to the contrary.

Kirche looked like she didn't care either way, Tabitha had her usual neutral look, and Louise looked more annoyed that she doesn't get any say in the matter, than about the matter itself.

After a short walk they reach the room and everyone gets comfortable, Louise sits on her bed, Kirche, Tabitha take up seats in chairs, with Siesta standing to the side, looking slightly uncomfortable with the situation at hand.

Meanwhile Raskreia takes her Bag of holding and pulls out a set of two folding chairs, offering one to Siesta, Tabitha looking interested at the bag says "How?" Her communication skills are as good as they have always been. Raskreia just points at the bag and asks "You meant the bag" at Tabitha's nod she continues "It's a magic bag that… uh to make it sound less complicated, is many times bigger on the inside and weighs the same no matter how much is in it, commonly they are known as 'Bags of holding', or if you want the magical term 'Extra-dimensional storage container'. Anyway my magic system."

The four native girls are looking at Raskreia expectantly, so far everything Raskreia did was something never before heard of. "Well first of, please do not disregard any off what I say as impossible, even if it contradicts your religious believes, as some of it will, because quite frankly when magic is involved the word 'impossible' doesn't exist." Waiting for the four of them to nod in agreement she continues. "Well then. Magic where I come from is so diverse that just saying 'Magic' is like saying 'Animal' or 'Plant' there is so many different plants and animals that you need to categorize." She looks at each of them to see if they understood which they seemingly did.

"First, the magic type, There is arcane and divine magic" at their looks she hold up her hand to signalize that she was getting to explaining "Arcane is magic that is drawn from around us, or from within us, arcane magic stems from us and everything around us, while divine magic is granted by gods or godlike beings that the caster worships. And before you go onto a tirade of how your god Brimir is the only god, he is not, I'm not refuting that he exists or that he is a god, what I'm refuting is that he is the only god. There is many gods out there. Many are benevolent of helpful, but just as many would happily torture your soul for all eternity." She earned four pale faces for saying that.

"Second is there is the category of type of caster, we have prepared, and spontaneous casters.

Spontaneous casters are basically what you are, they can cast the spells that they know for as long as they have enough energy within them to do so, or … at least that is the easiest way to explain it without going into extreme magic theory and speculations on how it actually works."

"Prepared casters are called as such because they 'Prepare' their spells beforehand each morning by 'memorizing' the spell, so if a prepared caster only prepares one spell in the morning, he can only cast that one spell the entire day after casting that one spell he can't cast anymore for the rest of the day till he prepares new spells. There are differences of how and when to prepare spells. For the arcane its memorizing of the spell from their spell books or the like…well I say memorize… its really them casting the spell to almost completion with the help of the spell-book and just keeping the energies within him ready to finish the spell at his command, of course a wizard can only hold so many spells like that and its really up to training and experience to learn how to hold more and more spells at the ready. As for divine casters its ritualistic prayer to what or whoever they worship"

At this Kirche was perplexed "Hold on, you are saying that where you come from your gods give anyone who prays to them magic?" Siesta hat a sort of hopeful look, and Raskreia Giggles "No, no of course not, they only grant spells to those who's mindset is the closest to the respective god, also you need quite a bit of training and a bit of luck to become a good divine caster, you don't just become one, you are, more or less, chosen."

Tabitha had her own 'question' "Divine stronger?" "She wants to know if Divine magic is stronger than this arcane magic." Supplied Kirche "You know, that is in fact often subject for debate. My personal opinion is that they both have pros. and cons. that make them about equal to each other. Divine magic sounds powerful since it's a gift from the gods if you will, but there is only so much energy a mortal body can hold, and since divine and arcane magic is so similar a arcane caster can hold pretty much the same amount of magic as a divine caster. A god cant give you too much magic, that would be like trying to fit an ocean into a glass." They all nod in semi-understanding.

"Next are schools, I will be brief on this, as you can talk about the individual schools for quite a while. First there is Abjuration, this school uses magic in its most primal form, you literally use raw magical energy, its primarily focused on defense, but can also dish out quite a bit of hurt if need be masters of this school for example can create impenetrable walls that also hurt those that try to pass them."

"Next is Conjuration, this school uses magic to create new things out of raw magic, or summon beings from other planes of existence, masters of this school can teleport across continents travel between planes of existence or summon great beings from beyond the veil. Any questions so far?" Four somewhat reluctant "no's" was her answer.

"Next is divination, it focuses on gathering information… that's pretty much it. Masters of this school can gain a sort of 6th sense, that lets them see a second or two into the future, but that's all that there is to this school, don't get me wrong this school is VERY good at this, but its all it does when it comes down to it. Next is a school that is often seen as one of the more powerful… Enchantment" "Well that doesn't sound very powerful." Stated a disappointed Louise, the rest of them agreed, tough Tabitha thought that there must be a reason why a person like Raskreia would think of this school a powerful.

Rask had a smirk on her face as she folds her arms under her chest. "Well I suppose it doesn't sound like much does it? But trust me, it earned that view. Masters of this school can dominate another persons mind, make them do their bidding, or if your mind is much more powerful than your targets, even crush the persons mind and soul completely, the spell I'm referring to with this is called **'Power word: Kill'** if the recipient of this spell is not strong enough in mind and body, he will die, simple as that, one moment alive the next dead, figuratively commanded to die. Then there is the now, thankfully, outlawed and highly condemned spell that is appropriately named **'Mindrape'** by casting this spell you learn EVERYTHING the person you cast this on knows. You could leave it at that of course, but that is not all that spell can do, you can completely alter or remove memories from the affected person, make friend to enemy, enemy to long lost family, devout worshipper of the god of the sun, into a cultist of the god of shadow, darkness and murder, in short… you mindrape them, in either case they won't ever remember that you even cast this spell on them. You still think this school sounds weak?" Four VERY pale heads shake in the negative. And the four thought approximately the same thing 'Thank god that such magic does not exist here.'

"Next is my favorite school and some argue it's the least versatile… I say its still more versatile than divination, its Evocation, and it specializes in the use of the elements to crush, burn, freeze or electrocute in many creative and flashy ways, I personally mainly like to use fire, tough I sometimes also use electricity. Following this school is the school of illusion, its often underestimated, when in reality its probably one of the more versatile schools ,It focuses on fooling ones senses. The better you are in this school the more senses you can fool, hell you can even emulate spells from other schools with certain spells from this one. Tough granted if one can overcome the illusion they don't do very much. Masters of this school can fool all of the persons senses, and even create things that are real enough to be interacted with."

"Coming up next is the school of Necromancy" She receives four sets of chokes "I know, I know. Necromancy focuses on the powers of life and death. Masters of this school can drain souls out of the living, kill with a single touch, spread plagues and diseases and raise armies of the undead. But its ironically the best school for combating undead, and its also used to talk to the spirits of the dead, which can be used to identify murderers for example, after all who better to ask who killed a person than the victim himself. Tough I will agree that when necromancy gets dark, its pitch black."

"The Eight school is Transmutation, it focuses on altering reality as is, change an object from one material to another, change a materials form, strengthen an object, and such its often the only school that has any permanent effect, and masters of this school can change their form almost at will, shape things to their will, a common misconception about this school is that one can even stop time with the inappropriately named spell **'Time stop'** but in reality the spell 'only' speeds the caster up to such tremendous speeds that it in fact seems like time has stopped for anyone but the caster." Louise was about to ask a question thinking that that was it considering Raskreia said that there were eight school, instead Rask carries on "And lastly, there is the 'universal' school often ignored or forgotten, as there are only five spells in this category, none of them can really be placed in any of the other schools."

"I'll spare you with the rest of the four but this one is a nice transition to circles of magic, it is a spell of the 9th circle, and its called **'Wish'** " The four other girls had a hint of wonder at such a spell and did indeed wonder if it did what was advertised in the name of the spell "And it does exactly what it sounds like" 'well that answers that question' thought the four' "you wish for something and it happens, even tough there are limits to the spell, they are quite broad. But the spell is quite expensive to cast, as one requires large quantities of diamond dust for the casting of the spell. And I would not play around with this spell either, magic is a fickle thing and this magic in particular will ALWAYS take you literally, and will ALWAYS take the route of least resistance so to speak. "

"Okay… finally, that's the schools done. Ill make it quick with the circles, I'm getting tired of hearing myself talk" Kirche and Siesta laughed lightly at that. "there is nine circles, and two 'circles' that don't really count, its basically to rate how powerful a spell is, with the 1st being the weakest, and the 9th the strongest. The last two are cantrip's or 0th level spells, they are simple magic tricks, mostly used for practice or for convenience… ah, that reminds me" She then pulls out a ring from a little bag hanging from her belt. The ring itself is silver with runic engravings carved into it. She then hands the ring to Siesta who's eyes grow wide as she tentatively takes it. "Here I thought you might find use for this, I don't need it as I can do what the ring can to on my own, its enchanted with whit the cantrip **'Prestidigitation'** , ill explain to you later on how to use it, it should make your duties as a maid quite a bit easier." She finishes wit ha smile.

"I cant accept such a thing, it must have cost a fortune." She says trying to give the ring back "Nah, keep it, I don't need it, its useful to you, and no it really wasn't expensive as I made it myself." 'well it wasn't expensive when speaking in terms of magic items 500 gold pieces for enchanting materials is quite a sum for most people. Gotta love the income of a adventurer.'

"Anyway back on track, the last 'circle' of magic is not really a circle, they transcend such definition. They are called epic spells, and quite frankly I don't know much about them, only that they can do pretty much anything. Really the only reason I know about them at all is because there was a huge catastrophe where such a spell was cast, that event left a scar in my home that will most likely never heal, and that is all I will divulge about them."

Siesta being ever curious just had to ask "What was this spell called? And what did it actually do?" Raskreia took up a serious face. "It was a spell, or rather a ritual, called **'The bonfire of Insanity'**." That is NOT a comforting name **"** As for what it does, it can only be cast at night when its raining, and when cast it curses the rain for a mile around, ALL that has ever died within the radius of this cursed rain will raise as a undead abomination with the sole purpose of consuming the living, and those of the living who come into contact with the water of this rain are cursed, if they do not get magical treatment by next sunrise they will join the ranks of the undead. And the only magic that can cure this curse is a powerful divine spell, certainly not something that can be cast on the population of an entire town… or in the case where it was cast an army camp."

THAT was the last nail in the coffin, magic where Raskreia is from is scary. That spell sounded horrible, who would actually cast such a monstrosity, and what did they hope to gain from doing something like that?

"Oh and one last thing, and on a brighter note, one major difference to what you have here in terms of magic, where I come from anyone can learn to cast magic even those not born with it. So, anyone got any questions? Cause I kind of want to go back to sunbathing now." Raskreia finished her long winded explanation of magic with a grin. The four girls shook their heads in the negative not wanting to have any more bombs dropped on them.

Smiling Raskreia went for the door, leaving the girls to mull over what they have just learned, the three nobles stayed while Siesta excused herself to attend to her duties.

Louise could not believe what her familiar was telling them, she wanted to tell her to stop lying, that such things can not be true, that something like that is impossible, but she somehow knew that her familiar was telling the truth, it did genuinely seem that she was talking about something she knew for a long time and was just recounting things that she has learned, rather than making up fictional facts. She also wondered how a country where everyone can learn to use magic can function, after all how do they govern the commoners if they have magic. Heh… commoners with magic such a contradiction to the Tristanian.

Kirche was less concerned for the political state of a foreign nation, besides, in Germania not all nobles had magic either. No what interested her most was the fact that Raskreia seemed to have the same kind of passion for fire as her. Does that mean that Louise is a fire mage? In either case her darling just got a whole lot more interesting.

Tabitha was in deep contemplation, this magic had allot of potential, and maybe she could win over Raskreia against her uncle. Maybe she would be willing to teach her some of it, it would certainly be able to act as a trump card if nothing else.

Siesta on the other hand did not quite understand all that was being said, after all she was just a commoner with no magic, so there was no point comprehending it, even if it is magic from a different world. To her this all really sounded like just any old magic, to her it was the same, another tool for nobles to control commoners. What caught her attention however was what Raskreia said at the end however. The fact that anyone can learn this magic, even those not born with it. This gave Siesta hope, hope that she might be able to learn magic from Raskreia. And maybe improve her lot in life, or show the nobles that commoners are not as weak and worthless as they think they are.

* * *

With Raskreia

* * *

She was originally on the way to find a secluded place to enjoy the rest of the day a bit more but a growl coming from her stomach made her go to the kitchens instead. All she has eaten in the past day and a half was a strip of dried meat after all.

Arriving at the kitchens the servants are just cleaning the place and starting preparations for the next meal. Most maids and cooks do not notice her, and those that do avoid her, most likely thinking her a noble, or giving her looks of awe, for what reason she does not know. Quickly scanning the room Raskreia quickly spots what seems to be the head chef and promptly walks over to the man who is currently bossing around a set of maids and has his back turned towards her.

Once within reach Rask taps the man on the shoulder to gain his attention, he whirls around thinking some of the staff need something off him, but as he turns around he spots Raskreia and his face goes from neutral to shock and finally goes back to neutral with a hint of confusion when he sees the warm smile on her face. "Excuse me sir, but am I correct in the assumption that you are the head chef of this kitchen?"

Marteau not missing a beat answers the, what he thinks, is a foreign noble, after all some of his staff have told him about how she defeated one of the noble kids in a magic duel. Why said duel broke out he knows not nor does he particularly care when nobles fight among themselves "Indeed I am my lady, what brings into my kitchens, I hope everything was to your liking and you have no complaints." 'Damn noble probably just wants to personally tell me that she doesn't like my food'

Raskreia oblivious to his internal monologue just keeps on smiling "No complaints here sir, but indeed I would have had to eat anything to be entitled to any critique in the first place. You see my 'master' " saying master in a way to signal that she does not indeed consider whoever is meant as her master "One of the local students ruined my appetite not to long ago and had I not left on my own accord would have most likely tried to throw me out of the hall herself."

That took Marteau by a bit of surprise 'So she is not a noble? A fallen noble then? Maybe one married off to one of the students? What a waste to basically sell of such a beauty to one of these brats' but still not knowing why the woman is actually here he asks "Alright, but then why are you here then Ms.?" Raskreia laughs lightly, a sound that sounds more like the light tinkling of bells then a sound human vocal cords could make. "Oh, right. Look at me ramble about pointless things. I was wondering if I could borrow your kitchen for a bit so I could make myself something to eat. And don't look at me like that, yes I know how to cook, ill have you know that I'm quite good at it, if I do say so myself."

Marteau saw no real harm in it, he would just watch over her to make sure she did not mess up his kitchen and to confirm her claim that she did indeed know what she was doing. "All right, you can use that stove over there. And you can have some of the leftover ingredients from breakfast" he said pointing all the things out. "Thank you, that will more than suffice." She replied with a smile immediately getting to work.

The leftover ingredients are exactly that, leftovers. But Raskreia is used to traveling the wilderness with little to no access to fresh food, and she was the only one in their little group with any noteworthy skill in cooking, so naturally she grew quite good at it. Doesn't hurt that she insisted on cooking even after she hired maids to help keep her mansion clean. It was one of the few things she really liked to do aside from magic.

Raskreia believes that if you do one thing for to long you will burn yourself out, lose interest or your drive for that particular activity and drop efficiency. So she took up a small set of things and skills with which she passes her time. Those are; cooking, woodworking, artistry mostly in the form of paintings or the occasional tattoo and taking care of animals. By alternating between these activities and her magic 'studies' and crafting she kept her interest in all of them.

But back to the matter at hand, all she really had to work with were a few vegetables that had cosmetic flaws or were squished. A few fruits with the same problem, and some meat not properly scraped off of the bones. In other words. Plenty for her to make herself a meal.

Taking the vegetables and the meat she prepares herself a stew, which she seasons with her personal mix of herbs she took out of her little (extradimensional) pouch hanging around her neck. Out of the fruits that are not damaged she makes herself a fruit salad, and the damaged ones she makes into fresh juice, and using a cantrip cools it down to a nice and refreshing temperature.

Marteau is quite impressed by the work of this woman, she is not only efficient but fast in her work as well. Out of what most would have considered worthless leftovers she made a full meal, and if it tastes as good as it looks then he will be doubly impressed. As Raskreia is working on the fruits he takes a small taste of the stew, his eyes go wide. She managed to make it taste as good as any stew he could make with such limited ingredients. She indeed was not lying when she said she knew how to cook.

"My Lady, where did you learn to cook this stew tastes as good as any I have ever had?" he asks her as does the finishing touches on the food. "Well, my family owns a tavern, and when I was little I used to always help out in the kitchen. Both my father and my mother taught me" 'My adoptive ones at least did, ever seen a god or a giant gold dragon cook? I think not. Then again that was a bit unfair towards her father, he simply preffers his food...err, roasted.' she added in her mind. "And once I left home I mostly traveled with my friends, and being the only one that could cook and not make it LESS edible then when raw was me, so it naturally fell on me to prepare our groups meals whenever we ate something that was no rationed. And they learned to appreciate it when I spared them of eating nothing but dried meat and fruits for multiple weeks of travel."

Marteau's opinion of this woman was steadily raising she, while not quite humble, didn't seem arrogant. Only taking pride in what she accomplished, and learned herself, a trait he could respect. And it also seems she had a commoner upbringing, making it all the more sad that she seemingly got married off to some noble's brat, if that is what was going on.


	8. Chapter 8

"Speech: Halkeginian"

 _'Thoughts'_

 **'Spells and the like'**

 _"Speech: Common"_

 _ **"Speech: Draconic"**_

* * *

TAoM

* * *

Raskreia after having finally gotten something into her stomach other than a bit of dry meat, and having (hopefully) dealt with everything that she needs to deal with for the day, goes back to what she originally planned on doing, sunbathing.

Lately she spent too much time in her demi-plane, and while it does have a 'sun' it is not quite the same as the real thing. What it does have is a small lake of magma which she sometimes uses to relax in. Since she developed her inherent immunity to all things hot she rather started to enjoy normally uncomfortable (read: lethal) temperatures. That is not to say she dislikes the cold, that is actually not the case, she likes almost any sort of weather, this is mostly thanks to both her immunity to the adverse effects of heat, and her resistance to cold, as long as it is not storming she will most likely never complain about the weather.

Never the less, she does not want to take any chances of being interrupted again and just wants to take a nap already, so she uses **'Dimension door'** to get to the roof of the academy, makes sure she is secure, and lies down to fall into blissful sleep.

* * *

After sundown: TAoM

* * *

*Yawn* _"Now that was a nice nap, been too long since I took a nap under a real sun. Now what do I do though?" She thought_

Looking around the courtyards from the roof to see if she can spot anything she indeed does spot a certain someone familiar near the same fountain they met last night.

Siesta has been in deep thought the entire day since Raskreia told her and the other three about her worlds magic. Its sounds too good to be true in fact. If it is true however it might be her biggest chance, for something greater, ever.

After getting closer to her the half-dragon calls down to get her attention "Hey Siesta, are you the only one around here that does the laundry, or am I just that lucky to meet you here two nights in a row?"

The sudden call startles the poor maid out of her thoughts, who then quickly looks to see from where her new friend is calling, and not spotting her "I'm up here." Comes a new call whereupon she does finally spot Raskreia on top of the roof above her.

"Raskreia! Don't startle me like that. And how did you get up there? How are you going to get down?"

Rather than answer her Raskreia merely takes a step off of the side of the building, much to the shock of the ravenette. But before she could meet the unforgiving ground she simply casts a **'Feather fall'** and slowly descends to the ground.

"Well, that's how I am going to get down, as to how I got up in the first place. I teleported, could have just flown… with you know… my wings, but don't want people to see them yet. From what I have seen of your culture so far, which admittedly is not all that much, you seem quite a bit more xenophobic than the people I'm used to. No offence of course." She says as she fixes her hair that got a bit out of place after sleeping.

Siesta for her part quickly composes herself, she somewhat understands now what Rask meant when she said that her friends are jaded towards her antics "None taken. I was actually hoping to speak with you, but I couldn't find you anywhere. Then again I would not have thought to look on the roof, probably shouldn't surprise me that you were up there." She says as she turns back to finish cleaning the clothes she is supposed to wash.

"Oh, you wanted to talk to me? What about? But before that, I should probably tell you how to use that ring I gave you. Its simple really, you can use it to do the following: Clean, warm of chill, lift something of up to one pound, or alter the flavor of whatever you affect with this. And to do that you merely need to think of the effect you want to happen while vaguely pointing the ring at whatever it is you want to affect. Simple, right?"

After that explanation Siesta looks at the plain silver ring with new appreciation "Are you sure I can have this? You said this came to you cheap but I cant believe something like this would be cheap. I know it is rude to ask about the price of gifts but how much did this actually cost?" She shifts slightly as she says that

"Yes I'm sure you can have it, if I wasn't I wouldn't have given it to you in the first place. and if you really want to know how much it costs its no problem for me to tell you, it makes little difference to me. Besides I made it myself so its not like I paid its market price." As she says that she moves to sit on the fountain to watch Siesta try out the ring the way she had it explained. It took her a bit but she managed to get the shirt clean. At which both of them smile at the small success.

"Well lets see here making, that ring cost me approximately 500 gold pieces of materials, and about 8 hours of work. Meaning that it could be potentially sold for around 1000 gold pieces in my home give a or take a bit, I don't know how much it would be worth around here though."

The way Raskreia just stated that Siesta was wearing more money on her finger than she was likely to make in the next decade, as if it was a every day occurrence is quite a bit less shocking than it would have been for the maid just yesterday. As such her reaction is merely a loud "WHAT!?" as she might have fainted yesterday. "How can you just give something like that away? For that matter how can you afford something like that if you are not a noble, and you don't seem like a merchant either, if you don't mind me asking of course."

"Oh no, I don't mind at all, its not like it's a secret. Well, I spent a good portion of my life as an adventurer, a profession that if you are good at it can and will make you rich in time. Treasure hunting, monster extermination, bounty hunting, that sort of thing. I remember not too long after I started out we had a minor job to rid this town of a werewolf for which we got paid 1000 gold pieces between four of us." By this time Siesta finished applying the cleaning properties of the ring to the clothes, and they started walking around the academy.

"Or this one time we were tasked to retrieve someone that was kidnapped by pirates, that job paid 5000 gold pieces between, again, the four of us, but we also managed to steal the pirates ship and sell it, including all the things it had on it, that was another 25000 gold pieces right there, we could have probably sold it for more but we were in a hurry, and had not patience to seek out a better buyer." Siesta was slack jawed, that was ALLOT of money, even 'just' the werewolf mission she went on could feed her family for years.

"Of course such method of income is somewhat unreliable, not to mention hazardous to ones health. And since I hired a number of servants to take care of my mansion I had had built somewhere along the way," _'Lets not mention that said mansion is in a private demi-plane for now'_ "I needed some form of stable income too, which is why also opened up two mines, that I co-own with my three friends mind you, to gain some stable form of income. In that sense, at risk of sounding like a pompous asshole, I don't really consider 500 gold pieces all that much anymore. And a friend is worth something so 'minor' any day in my opinion." The last statement earned Raskreia a grateful smile.

"Thank you." Said Siesta still smiling.

"Anyway, enough talk about money, its not really I topic I like to talk about. You wanted to talk to me about something?" At this Siestas smile got replaced by a small blush because she forgot about the original reason why she wanted to talk to Raskreia, but it was soon replaced by a determined expression.

"I wanted to ask you if you could teach me how to use your type of magic." This earned her a small grimace from Raskreia which sent her into a slight panic at being rejected.

It is in a sad tone Rask replies "I would, I really would. But I'm truly not sure I can teach you. I'm a sorceress, I was born with magic similar how the local nobles are. And I never really bothered to learn how wizards learn to cast magic, nor could I teach you to become some form of divine caster. Unless you are a sorceress and just don't know it, I cant help you, I'm sorry." Siesta could tell she was sincere in the fact that she would help her if she could, that does not make it any less disappointing however.

"So that means I wont be able to use magic after all. Should have seen that coming." She says with a tone of acceptance.

"Huh? I didn't say that. I only said that it cant be me that teaches you. I could try and set you up with a proper teacher if you want to learn magic. I'm just sad it cant be me teaching you, that would have been fun." Raskreia said with a apologetic smile, as if she had something to apologize for. Whereupon she found herself lung-crushing hug by a extremely happy maid.

"You would do that for me? Really? But I cant leave the academy. My family relies on my income for their living." This got a thought-full look from the half-dragon "How much do you make a month, if you don't mind that is?"

"We maids of the academy are paid quite well, we make 3 gold pieces in a month."

"Alright. Now I need to ask you something important and do not answer this lightly." Rask says in a serious tone, Siesta has never seen her like this before, all the other times she was so easy going and carefree, now she is all business. "Just how serious are you about learning, just how willing are you to put possibly years of your life into learning the path of the arcane, or mayhap divine. This is not something to undertake lightly, nor will you have an inborn shortcut, as I and these brats calling themselves nobles around here had." She takes a short breath.

"The reason I am asking is, because I would be willing to fund both your family, and your apprenticeship for the duration thereof. Now this would be an investment I would be willing to make, but it is not the money I'm concerned about. Nay, to do this I would have to pull some strings as you are already slightly above the normal age at which someone becomes an apprentice, and if you were to not take this seriously it could be potentially damaging to my reputation, not to mention the fact that you would have wasted not only your own time but also the time of the one to teach you." They stare into each others eyes for a long moment before Rask continues. "I want you to think about your answer, and I will ask for said answer when I think you have had enough time to think. Now it is quite late, you should probably head to bed, and rest. Good night." With that she took a turn down a hall leaving a thoughtful maid behind.

* * *

Next morning: TAoM

* * *

Louise woke up feeling quite excited. Today was the day of The Void which means she would be free to go to the capital with Raskreia, maybe if she were to impress the woman with how grand Tristain is, she would be more inclined to stay here.

Looking towards the haystack serving as her bed for the time being she notices that Rask is already up and doing her morning routine. "Morning Raskreia." "Morning." "I had planned that we could ride to the capital today, as I have this day free also, it being the day of

The Void." That got the attention of the 'elf'.

"The capital you say? How far is it from here?"

"Oh, just a under two hours ride. So it is not that far from here."

"Great you go get ready I'm going to get my mount." With those words the sorceress was out the room already.

 _'What did she mean "she is going to get her mount?"'_ was what Louise thought _'I hope she didn't mean to steal a horse or something'_.

With Raskreia

Our resident half-dragon is currently walking towards an open space in a courtyard for what she had in mind. Some students are around and a few are giving her curious glances, including a certain dark skinned girl.

 _'Well this is a somewhat unexpected yet welcome surprise. I wonder what the capital here is like.'_ "Well whatever **'Gate'** " As she said the spells name a black circle appears in mid air. Those that look through can see that it looks like a portal into some sort of verdant grassland, but they can also see what appears to be a mansion in the distance. What none of those that see this, other than Raskreia, know is that this is an inter-dimensional portal leading to Raskreia's personal Demi-Plane.

Taking a few steps through the portal Raskreia then appears to shout something, but none on the Halkeginian side of the portal can hear what is said, and Raskreia then just steps back through the portal.

Kirche being curious about what is going on walk up to the half-dragon in disguise. "What is this portal thing darling?" upon hearing the voice of a friend said dragon half turns around to flash Kirche a smile but goes back to concentrating on the portal.

"It's a gate to my home, I wanted to get a friend of mine over."

"A friend you say, I must admit that I am curious as to what they will be like. If they are only half as interesting as you then we are in for a ride." This earned her a amused huff from Rask.

"You'll see, there she is coming right now"

Suddenly leaping out of the portal comes a snow white tiger, that stops just short of Raskreia. As soon as the Tiger is through the portal closes behind it.

Raskreia turning towards the tiger and says words in a language that none of the students present understand. _**"Fekiikiri thurir. Si mi saeuth wux confnal"**_ ("Greetings friend. I am glad you came")

And to everyone's shock the tiger actually huffs in what one can only assume to be amusement before replying in the same language.

 _ **"Lae sjek si tiliw dolruth svern shafaer wer krehl ekess ossalur mrith wux, ekess vucot dout apzen wux geou itrewic sari korth creol svaklar korja wer idol "**_ ("As if I could pass up on the chance to travel with you, knowing you, you will get into some kind of trouble on the way.")

"Did that tiger just speak?" Kirche's voice breaks through the two friends reunion, and both their attention is now on the red-head.

"Well, yes she did, Felniir is not a quite a normal tiger."

"Felniir, huh? She is quite pretty isn't she, can she speak in our language?"

"Sadly not, she speaks two languages, neither of which you understand."

"Pity, I'm sure she knows some juicy secrets of yours."

"Heh, that she does, but you will just have to learn my language then if you want to know them." She replies with a wink.

"Speaking of, how do YOU speak our language, I highly doubt your homes language is the same as ours." Raskreia blinks a few times then starts laughing lightly.

"Would you believe you are the first to ever ask me this, most people just assume their language must be important enough for me to learn it. I'm wearing a magic item on me that lets me understand and speak any language, only thing it does not let me do is write. Quite useful id say for a traveler."

"I'll say, just how many magic items do you have on you?"

Rask just shrugs "A few."

Kirche huffs in amusement. "Anyway, I ought to be going Tabitha will be waiting for me at breakfast."

"Alright, have a good one. I will be going to find Louise."

Felniir pads up when Kirche left _**"That one reeks of pheromones. If I did not know better, I would say she was interested in you. What did you do?"**_ As they talk they are slowly walking towards the front gate.

 _ **"Nothing that should warrant the kind of interested you are implying. She called you pretty by the way."**_

 _ **"Ohh, I like her already. Where are we going today?"**_ The mild excitement in her Voice is not missed by Raskreia

 _ **"The one that summoned me is offering a tour of the capital of this country, and I took her up on it."**_ She stats sheepishly.

 _ **"And let me guess, you wanted a ride for the trip. I should feel offended that you only called me now because you don't want to walk or ride a horse."**_ There was no real bite behind the accusation.

 _ **"Oh lay off it! Walking would take to long, and you know how much I hate riding on horses. Besides, its not like you even notice my weight."**_

 _ **"True, but you could also just teleport."**_ Was the retort.

 _ **"And miss the scenery? Never!"**_ This made them both laugh before falling into comfortable silence in which they waited a few minutes for Louise to shot up and for Raskreia to pull out a saddle out of her bag of holding and saddle Felniir.

As Louise got closer her horse got distinctly more uncomfortable at the presence of a Felniir, and Louise was not far off.

"Fa- Raskreia! Where did that tiger come from? Don't tell me that is the mount you talked about."

"Why yes dear Louise, it is indeed the mount I was talking about. This is Felniir, a dear companion of mine. And I brought her here from my home."

"How?" She could not believe it, her familiar seemingly had a familiar of her own.

"Magic." Was the deadpan response.

"Right, I just hope it wont eat me or my horse on the way." With that they set out.

"Don't worry, she wont eat you." _'Not unless you make her angry that is.'_

* * *

One and a half hours of travel later: Tristania

* * *

"You know, that must have probably been the easiest it has ever been for me to enter a town with Felniir with me. The guard barely even gave her a glance" The unusual trio was currently walking down the main street of town.

"While I still don't understand why you insisted on bringing it with us into town, it was probably because the guard assumed you to be a noble and it to be your familiar."

"Well, that's convenient. So what is there around here to see?"

"We could go and see the palace, also I'm sure the market has some interesting things to see, where do you want to go first?" Rask contemplated for a moment before deciding to visit the market first.

A short walk later they arrived at their destination, it was a bustling street filled with market stalls and all the buildings were either shops or restaurants. One could find allot of things from all over Halkeginia here.

"What do you think? Quite impressive is it not? You can find things even from even Romalia." Louise stated with proud voice at being able to show a foreigner how great her own country is.

"It is quite nice." She tried to sound impressed, she really did _'Sometimes I wish long term adventuring was not so desensitizing to being impressed. I can tell that Louise must be proud so I cant very well say "Yeah I have seen the planar market within the astral plane where there is almost nothing one cant get" or "I have been to a marketplace within the city of Utopia once sooo…" tough I suppose I shouldn't read a book by its cover, if I don't try to enjoy it I wont be able to in the first place.'_

A few hours later they left the market to go see the palace. Louise bought herself a new dress for the upcoming ball at school, while Raskreia bought quite a bit more.

She bought a few sets of clothes as well, yet not for herself, not needing to since she has a set of sleeves of many garments, but mostly for her friends back home. She also bought a few local books and maps for some of her more scholarly friends, including a dictionary of all five major languages of Halkeginia. She also bought some seeds for fruits and vegetables she has never heard of, including a book on how to cultivate them.

They took a rest in a park in the shadow of the palace where they ate some of the fruits they have bought earlier.

"This is the royal palace. Within reside the current queen and princess. The king died not long ago." Raskreia did notice the slight change of tone at the mention of the princess but did not dwell on it.

"It is quite nice, as far as palaces go. I always wanted to live in one, but the only chance I ever had to do so was when this one prince wanted to have me as a glorified concubine." The resentful tone in Rask's voice was not missed by Louise, who choked on a piece of apple at the statement.

"You were a concubine!?" She exclaimed.

"No! Were you not listening? I just stated that I never lived in a palace and the only chance to WOULD have been to become part of a prats 'harem-in-all-but-name'."

"How could you refuse a royal like that? What if you got tried for treason or something."

"HAH! Yeah right, it was not even my home country. We were just passing through, and we were doing a job for that countries king. Whom I told, in no uncertain terms, that if his son were to lay his hands on me he would lose said hands. I admit I could have handled that a bit more diplomatically, but thankfully the king is nothing like his son, and took my statement in stride."

There was mirth in her eyes as she retold her story, and Felniir, who got a regular casting of **'Comprehend Languages'** for the day, was smiling lightly to the side at the memory of threatening to bite princeling's genitals of. Not like she would follow up on that threat, there was a limit on what she would put into her mouth.

Louise was just glad that her familiar did not get into trouble for her actions, even tough it would have been deserved in that case.

They spent the rest of the time wandering aimlessly through the city and with idle chatter.

* * *

On the road back

* * *

Raskreia had quite a bit of fun, it has been a while she had been to a new city, she always liked exploring cities. While it was not as grand as a fair few of the cities she had been to, nor had there been any species other than humans around (something that was a somewhat novel experience for her.), it was by far not the worst city she had been to. A shudder ran down her spine at the memory of her visit in Egorian, capital of Cheliax… never again will she willingly go there.

On the way Raskreia notices something that was not there before, a toppled tree lay across the road making Rask scoff _'some things are just universal aren't they'_

Unlike Louise who had not yet realized the significance of what they were seeing, Felniir did and quietly whispered _**"I told you, you would find trouble, or it would find you the moment you leave town."**_ Earning a small laugh from her rider who discreetly prepared to cast a spell, as they both moved slightly closer to Louise. Much to the discomfort of her horse.

As they got closer Louise started to complain about poor road maintenance, which Raskreia for the sake of appearance mimicked as she let kept a close eye on anything going on.

Felniir not having to hold to appearances was looking around, and smelled the air. And she could tell there was a group of people hiding slightly off the road on either side.

She quietly whispered again _**"Small group, both sides, cant tell how many, no more than 20."**_

As they reached the tree a group of men stepped out from behind them and on both sides effectively boxing them in. The group consisted of five men on the left and three in the back, with another six on the right. There were 2 archers on both the right and the left side who had arrows pointed at them, all but one of the rest had some form of melee weapon, and they were all equipped with either chain or leather armor.

After a moment the last person, the apparent leader, and probable mage judging from the wand, spoke up.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here? Two noble ladies out for a ride and no guards in sight. You will fetch us a fine ransom."

"Hey boss, look at the one on the kitty, ain't she a fine one, can we have some fun with her later?"

"As long as they are still alive by the end of it I don't care what you do."

Louise was horrified, she and Raskreia were going to get kidnapped, and most likely raped. If only she never suggested this stupid trip.

Raskreia on the other hand was not really nervous at all, this was not the first time after all that she was waylaid by bandits. True most of the time she had a group of equally experienced companions with her. But at the same time most of the time those that ambushed them could at least somewhat back their words up with, if nothing else, appearance. Something that these people could not. Not only could she not sense a single magic item on them, but by the way they held their weapons and behaved, she could tell that they underestimated them, something that a experienced combatant would never do. ESPECIALLY when dealing with what they already know to be a spellcasters.

Letting out a sigh she addresses the leader "I know you will refuse, but I will offer anyway. Just go to the capital and turn yourselves in, that way none of you will be hurt any more than necessary." Which earned her laughter from the surrounding men.

"I don't think you realize what sort of situation you found yourself in, you would be shot before you could draw your wand. Speaking of, men, go relieve them of their wands. Watch out for that cat though."

Raskreia merely shook her head. "Well, I tried **'Time Stop'**." Everything around her 'stopped' at those words, and she could now take a few seconds to survey the situation.

Quickly deciding on a course of action she cast a **'Create Pit'** on the people behind her, encased the ones on her left in a **'Wall of Stone'** (she did leave them a few small breathing holes) followed by a cast of **'Black Tentacles'** to finish things off but used a rod of the **'Merciful'** metamagic to ensure they would not die.

Time resumes flowing normally once more, and the formally cocky jeers of the bandits turned into exclamations of shock, confusion, and panic. The three behind her fell into the pit, the ones on the left tried to break out of their unforeseen prison, and the ones on her right were grabbed by a field of large tentacles with no sense of personal space.

The leader of the bandits was the most confused and panicked he didn't even see anything happen. One moment they were about to capture two noble women, and the next some of his boys fell down a hole that came out of nowhere, others were now stuck inside a stone box, and the rest, himself included, were now being continuously pummeled by large rubbery tentacles. He and his let out a many angry shouts trying to get free before these things knocked them out or worse, somewhere along the way he even lost his wand. One of his guys actually managed to get out, only to be mauled by an angry tiger. This was not what they had planned at all.

After about a minute of this, and Raskreia making a similar stone cage as she did with the ones on the left for the people on the right before they were lifted up by the pit spell ending, all the bandits on the right were knocked unconscious by the overly affectionate tentacles, whereupon she ended the spell, removed any wands they might have had anywhere on them, and set up yet another stone box around the last of them.

Louise was about to say something, but before she could Raskreia vanished using a **'Greater Teleport'** leaving Louise alone with Felniir, who for her part did not really look all that concerned. Maybe five minutes later where Louise was angrily pacing around, and shouting abuse, (and getting shouted at),toward the still conscious bandits, Raskreia popped back in using yet another teleportation.

Louise immediately rounded on her "WHERE WERE YOU? Why would you leave me alone here with some bandits." She was obviously distraught and angry.

"Ok, first off, you were not alone, Felniir is more than capable of protecting you against something like this." To which Louise huffed not seeing how a tiger could help against 8 armed men. "Secondly I teleported back to the capital and informed the guard at the gate of the fact that we have apprehended a group of bandits on the road towards the academy. Now we just need to wait a bit for them to arrive." This was followed by the frantic sound of banging on stone and digging, by the bandits within.

"Okay listen up you guys, you have two options. EITHER you stop trying to escape, and be grateful that I went out of my way to capture you alive and unharmed," no one dared mentioned the ones beaten into unconsciousness by the tentacles "OR option number two, I could simply shoot a fireball into those lovely boxes of yours, through one of those breathing holes I so graciously provided for you. What will it be." The following silence was telling.

A relatively short 45 minutes later a group of twenty guards showed up, who thanked the two mages for their cooperation with the law, and then took the bandits off of them from there, after a few brief questions of course.

The rest of the ride towards the academy was silent as Louise did not know what to say, Raskreia enjoying the silence, and Felniir not having anything to say.


	9. Chapter 9

AN: Right, I don't have any internet atm so I had to upload this over my phone if there is any problems with the chapter blame that.

* * *

"Speech: Halkeginian"

 _'Thoughts/telepathy'_

 **'Spells and the like'**

 _"Speech: Common"_

 _ **"Speech: Draconic"**_

* * *

TAoM: Louise's Room

* * *

Louise is at the moment in deep thought about what has happened earlier on the way back from the capital. She knew Raskreia was a good mage, nay a great mage. But now she understood that she still underestimated the elf. It did not take the woman even an moment to take out over a dozen armed men and she did not even have to incant for a single spell, not that she could tell anyway.

One of the spells she cast was baffling to the extreme to the Halkeginian. It had no element that she could tell. Unless there was a never heard off before element of rubbery tentacles.

Now she is even more determined to learn from Raskreia her type of magic.

 _'Speaking of her. Where is she?'_

* * *

TAoM: Kitchens

* * *

After coming back from the capital, a visit that was mostly uneventful (to her) she immediately headed for the kitchens. It has nothing to do with the fact that she and Felniir were hungry, not at all.

On the way she met a quite downcast looking Siesta with whom she exchanged a few pleasant words of greeting but parted ways when soon when Felniir all but dragged her off towards the promise of food.

 _ **"Good going. You made me forget to give her the dress I had bought for her as a present."**_

 _ **"Eat now, presents later. You were not the one to walk all the way to town and back"**_

 _ **"Fine."**_

Finishing the brief conversation they both enter the kitchens, and she immediately spots the chef who also notices her enter, unlike last time. "Hey, boss. Could I use your kitchen again, I brought my own ingredients this time, so don't worry about that."

"I don't see why not, it is still a while till we will need to use it ourselves so feel free to, as long as you leave everything the way you found it. Also keep that cat out of here."

"Oh don't worry about Felniir, she is as clean and well behaved as any one of us, and only slightly more arrogant than the local nobles." This statement earned her a swipe of the tigers tail and an irate chuff.

It does however also have the effect of making Marteu laugh. "Alright, I will take your word for it, but if she gets into the way of things she is out."

A short while cooking, a few compliments, and wary glances by passing staff members later Raskreia was sitting at a table eating a piece of steak, with Felniir next to her eating the same but hers was quite a bit more bloody.

After a while Marteu actually sits across from her with a steaming mug of presumably tea.

"How come you always come here to make your own food, doesn't your 'master'" he says the last word with obvious distaste, the same way that she used it the other day "- feed you properly?"

"Oh no, well that too I suppose, but my favourite food is the food I prepared myself."

Marteu frowns slightly for a moment but smiles "Hah, a woman after my own tastes, no pun intended."

He then hears something that sounds surprisingly like chuckling from the tigress, and his eyes widen when actual words come out of its maw, albeit words in a language he knows not.

 _ **"I can assure you she, tastes terrible."**_ Getting a slight glare from Raskreia

"I am not even sure what I am supposed to say in response to that you fur-ball."

Marteu ignoring the woman's retort for the most part just asks what is on his mind right now "Did that tiger just talk?"

 _ **"I did"**_ "She did", both look at each other for a moment before smiling at the other, as best as their respective anatomies allow." Felniir is not your everyday tigress, as a matter of fact she has about the same intelligence as a normal human. She sadly does not know this lands language, but I had cast a spell on her earlier that will at least let her understand it, wont allow her to speak it however."

"I see, you get more and more interesting Mi Lady. I take it she is your familiar then?"

"No, she is not. Where I come from not every mage has a bound familiar. I am one of those that doesn't. Felniir is merely a good friend and companion, and occasional mount, don't ask me why but I don't trust horses enough to ride on one. Of course having a tiger companion comes also with the added bonus of having a 400pound murder machine on your side."

Marteu just laughs "I can already see her chasing off any overly friendly men trying to woo you."

"Nah that's not needed, my other companions already create this barrier of inapproachability around me." She states with a cheery smile as she remembers one of the many evenings their group had spent at a local tavern, most men that would have approached her generally backed down when they noticed a dwarf and a half-elf both wearing full-plate and armed to the teeth. The fact that she was quite obviously a half dragon helped quite a bit too. It was quite funny, after she got used to it, to be accused by ignorant village people of being a demon or the like behind her back.

"Oh? Other companions?" By the look in his eyes he had other ideas of what she meant with companions than she did.

"Travelling companions, people with whom I went on many an adventure, my family away from my actual family. No romantic feelings involved." _'Not like I could fall for Zarhon anyway, he isn't the type to settle down anyways. Thorgal is like a brother, so he is right out from the get go. And Kwalin is already married 'nuff said about that.'_

The chef got a sympathetic look on his face "You miss them don't you?" To which Raskreia merely shrugs "A bit. Not like I can't go visit them any time I want. But most of them are a bit too busy for real adventures lately. Which is also the main reason why I decided to stay around here for a while, this place is new to me, and I love new things."

Not deciding to press what she meant by being able to visit them whenever she wants he instead goes for another route. "Tell me a bit about your companions, why have they been so busy lately for example."

Humming lightly to herself Raskreia goes over to one of the stoves and sets up a pot of tea.

As she does Felniir decides to leave for now, not really interested in being cooped up in a room for so long, scaring quite a few staff members in the process.

"Well we have Zarhon. He is a bard by trade, he is godly with that violin of his, and a superb singer to boot. He is trained in infusing his music with magic, boosting morale in battle or casting spells with music. He is the least busy of the three, he has recently fulfilled his dream of opening a bards college, which basically means he funded the building of the thing and now struts around it proclaiming to be headmaster. He and I are quite alike personality wise actually, and he wouldn't wear anything less than silk or at the very least fine cotton even if it were the last cloth on the planet. Used to be the child of a noble but his family got disgraced for various reasons. I think he still wants to eventually get a noble title, but its not at the top of his priority list." Marteu cant help but imagine him to be much like the local nobles, arrogant and snobbish, but then he remembers that she said that they were both very similar in personality and banishes the image from his mind.

"Next is Kwalin, he is actually a dwarf, so stout, broad and mean, with a heart of gold to those that manage to worm their way in, but even then quite cynical." The chef's eyes widen a bit at the proclamation of her companion being an actual dwarf, they were the stuff of legend after all "He is a Cleric of the Dwarven god Torag, god of craftsmanship. Which means that Kwalin is one of the best smiths I have ever seen, he makes masterwork weapons and armour as easily as some others make a shovel or a hoe. He, that is his order of clerics, is however not only devoted to crafting, they are also devoted to fighting any evil creatures they come across. He in particular spent a long time as a witch hunter, rooting out cults to evil gods, and the like. He quite often served as the voice of reason to our entire group, almost like an uncle. He has now somewhat settled down after he had married and opened small forge a forge. The latter of which only really there to pass time in my opinion." A bit disturbed at the Heresy of a god other than Brimir but otherwise interested he nods at her to continue.

"And lastly we have Thorgal, he was adopted quite early in his life by a wealthy merchant, tried studying to become a mage, failed miraculously, and got taken as a squire to a paladin knight instead." A apprentice to a knight then? Interesting, no he was a travelling companion to Raskreia, meaning that he probably was dismissed or disgraced after all a noble wouldn't go 'adventuring' "He joined us and during our travels he earned his knighthood quite early on actually, see he started adventuring because for knights of Iomedae you can only be knighted if you have actual field experience. He had been there with us through it all his sword slew many a beast and foul creature, his hammer crushed many a monstrosity. Quite friendly and outgoing, he is pretty much like a brother to me. And the longer we travelled the higher he rose in his orders ranks through battle achievements, two years ago he actually got promoted to knight commander, there is only one of those per country in the order. Now all he has time to do is fill out mountains upon mountains of paperwork."

So basically her group consisted of her, a fallen noble, a noble and a dwarf is what Marteu thought. 'Well they certainly sound like an interesting bunch.'

* * *

Outside

* * *

Felniir was walking, or more like stalking, through the halls of the academy, generally she cares little for the buildings of humans, or dwarves for that matter, as they have this insistence to make as much as possible out of stone, why cant they make the floor out of something more comfortable to her paws… like wood. But she was in a world she had not been in yet, and wanted to familiarized herself a bit with the surroundings.

She contemplated for a bit on how she got to were she was today.

She was born in captivity, trained to be a beast of war, then eventually bought by Raskreia.

She had done this at the time because of a weird dislike of horses she always had, and a fascination for tigers that she got long ago reading one of the arch-druids books.

They had spent almost a year like that, during which that outbreak of undeath happened. And Raskreia did not want to force her to fight against undead without a choice in the matter. So Rask being herself had asked the arch-druid residing in her home village if he could **'Awaken'** her. She skipped right past the possibility of simply casting a **'Speak with animals'** and went right for **'Awaken'**. And well… a day later she had been "awake" for the first time in her life. It was honestly a shock to a degree. But oh well, after a hiccup here and there they got to their current state of friendship. It also seems like the ritual had expanded her life expectancy quite significantly for she had almost not aged at all since that day almost 50 years ago. She did age, just very slowly, perhaps at the same rate as the elf that had cast the spell, which would mean she would be around for quite some time yet.

Focusing on her surroundings once more lest she collide with anyone or anything she resumes what she had been doing before going into a mental visit to the past.

The students and staff thankfully gave her a wide berth, not knowing why there was a tiger roaming the grounds, as none of them had summoned one, at least not a white one, but assuming it was the familiar of some visiting mage most likely.

She had seen quite a few other animals, some she knew, others reminded her of things she knew, like that mentally impaired cousin of a beholder she had spotted. Some she had to look twice to see if she was not imagining things, like a young (most likely a relative statement) blue dragon. Now she knew that chromatic dragons were not all evil, just the WAST majority. But seeing one of the great beasts that even devils and demons loathe to cross act almost like an overgrown dog with a petite looking human girl was not something one saw every day.

'Must just be some form of lesser drake, no way in the nine hells would even a young Darastrixi act like that.'

She also saw the red haired girl, whom she now knew a Kirche from overhearing someone call her that, she had met when she got here. By her side was her familiar, a flame lizard they for some reason called a salamander. She had fought salamanders before and this thing wasn't one, curse those flame serpents for singing her bellowed fur. Kirche waved at here in greeting when she saw her, which she returned with a nod then moved on.

Then she came upon a peculiar sight while on her way back towards the kitchen.

The maid Raskreia mentioned that she offered to pay for an apprenticeship for was being led of by two, somewhat lightly, armoured men and a snobbish looking man leading. The poor girl looked very sad and downtrodden, while the snob looked incredibly satisfied, not even trying to hide the lustful glances he occasionally sweep over the girl.

Coming to the conclusion that what ever is currently is happening was not in favour of the maid, nor of her free will. Quickly judging that her own chances against two men who had, judging by the quality of the things, non magical equipment, as well as a lone mage were still in her favour, provided she got the jump on the mage.

She crept around them a bit outside of their peripheral vision to get a better angle, then started to all out sprint.

* * *

With Siesta

* * *

Today was terrible for the young maid, after having met Raskreia in the morning she had been notified that her contract had been bought by a local lord. Count Mott. She of course knew the rumours surrounding the man, and she was afraid, very much so. And by the looks he constantly gave her, and the looks of resignation and pity from the guards, they were most likely true.

She couldn't possibly refuse his request either, to do so would be an insult to the noble. Which would lead to her losing her job eventually, and her family most likely being ruined. She had to endure for her family, she just had to. And only a day after that wonderful offer Raskreia had made her, she could still have accepted the offer and ask the woman if she could help her family from being ruined, but she could not ask something so selfish after already being offered so much.

She almost did plead for help when she had met her not an hour ago, but did not want to endanger her by having her interfere with local nobles business.

She had accepted her fate, and was now led towards the counts carriage by him and two of his guards.

Suddenly however a white blur shot past her and the guards, right at the count.

The unsuspecting man stood no chance to stay upright as almost five-hundred pounds of sprinting cat slammed into him. It was only by luck, and skill of the cat, that he had broken non of his bones at the impact. Now he however had a very big feline standing on top of him snarling into his face.

The guards move to help but any movement by anyone other than the maid had the beast snarling once more, even the tiniest twitch from the downed count would not be missed.

As such there were uncertain guards standing to the there, frantic and horrified maid between them, gawping students to the side, stock still count beneath angry tiger.

This was the scene both Osmond, Colbert and Raskreia came to see when they arrived almost simultaneously five minutes later.

Osmond was the first there, by a fraction, and as such the first to "Whoever that familiar belongs to call it off right now!"

Pushing through the crowd of students Raskreia reaches inside the large circle they had formed around the spectacle.

 _ **"Bloody cat, get off the man before you, or we, get bombarded by spells"**_ ignoring the looks of confusion the surrounding people gave her when she used such an unfamiliar language, or their nervous shivers at the sound of it, she stood there waiting for Felniir to release the man from beneath her.

After several tense seconds and one last snarl, the tigress does eventually steps off of the man who immediately springs up, and behind his guards, wand drawn.

"What is the meaning of this, is that your familiar?" Shouts a incredibly red faced count, whether from anger or embarrassment from being brought low by a 'lowly beast' is anyone's guess.

Raskreia offers the man only a short glance as she quickly scans over the scene, noticing Siesta's presence as well as her distressed appearance , and the miffed looks Felniir is shooting her and the slightly angry looks she is sending at the count. Sighing at the fact that she will most likely have to leave this world, or at least country, very soon she addressed the very same tigress.

 _ **"Care to tell me what was going on?"**_

 _ **"I'm just protecting your potential investments, if you want details ask your 'fellow humans'."**_

Turning to the count who had previously asked her a question, who now was a mix of anger and confusion (mostly because of the talking big cat) she finally addresses the man himself.

"My tiger says she had been, and I quote 'protecting my potential investment'. I assume with that she means the maid your guards are standing around of. Care to explain the reason of yours to, by the looks of it, apprehend her?"

"Just who do you think I am, or you are? I am the royal messenger, I work in the service of the crown. My name is Count de Mott, Mott the wave. And I will have you know that there will be dire consequences for what happened today."

"Lovely, I am Baroness I-don't-really-care-who-you-are, imperial enforcer of you-have-not-answered-my-question and High Lord of I-too-can-list-many-titles-that-will-hold-little-meaning-to-you. In all seriousness though, I will apologize for my companions actions if given a reason to do so, so far I have her word against none of yours, not very good odds for you I would say."

An increasingly red faced Mott takes a deep breath to calm himself and keep himself from attacking the, most likely, foreign noblewoman in front of him. "I see you are taking this not seriously, I will not however answer to a nameless person. Tell me your name and I will consider answering you."

"Fine, I am Raskreia. Charmed, truly."

"No last name? So you are a commoner then? How dare a lowly commoner such as you treat me such as this?" He went right back to his completely red face.

"I wouldn't call myself common, but I am no part of the nobility you so value either. As for me not having a last name, my name is Raskreia and Raskreia is who I am, my people have no need of last names, as no two names are the same, you will find no other Raskreia among my people. Of course I realize that such will only work in small communities, but nevertheless I carry no last name as per tradition, at best I may attach a title I earn through life to my name." _'Of which I earned a few but none translate very well from elvish or draconic sadly.'_

"So not only a commoner but also a country bumpkin. But I shall humour you, I am escorting my newly acquired maid, I have bought her contract just earlier." he now is visibly calmer and had put on a snobby air. "Since you are a commoner I could have you hung for this you know, sending your pet to attack a noble is a grave offence after all. I just might forgive you if you work for me as well I could always use another maid."

Raskreia and Felniir both have to fight back a scoff as the former turns to regard Siesta and casts a silent and still **'Telepathic bond'** connecting Her, Siesta and Felniir.

 _'Be not alarmed Siesta, I have merely forged a telepathic bond between us momentarily to give us a chance to talk in private. I take it you have decided to decline my offer then? Merely think something with the intention of me hearing it and I will.'_

The maid does the equivalent of a mental gasp but answers regardless _'I- yes I will have to decline I have no choice but to accept to work for the count.'_

 _'Nonsense, you always have a choice. Mind you sometimes those choices are merely a collection of bad ones, it is our lot in life to find the least terrible ones.'_

 _'You are right, I had a choice. I could have declined him and taken your offer, my family would have suffered for it however and I cannot accept that.'_

 _'Alright then, I think I know what is going on then. Tell me a bit about this count will you?'_

 _'He is very unpopular, he is rumoured to collect pretty young women to serve as maids in his mansion to use as concubines. Said rumours are almost certainly true as basically all of the maids who no longer work there adamantly refuse to talk about their time there.'_

 _'Ah, corrupt noble then? Say no more I know what to do.'_

Raskreia then mentally cuts the connection between them. As the conversation was carried out mentally at the speed of thought it had taken ten maybe fifteen seconds, in which Rask stood there as if in silent contemplation or in shock. She shakes her head a bit to get the slight after-effects of a telepathic bond out and turns to the expectant count.

"Well my lord, how about a little wager. How about both I and my tiger, as we stand here right now, do battle against you and your two guards, you can even call another two guards if you wish. The prize if you win will be I myself, as well as any material wealth I may posses. If I win however I want the contract of Siesta and any one of your staff who whish for a transfer." This earned quite a few murmurs of shock by the surrounding audience, however quite a few of them had not forgotten her 'battle' against Guiche either. A Certain Red-head was quite eager to see Raskreia in action once more.

Mott frowns deeply "And why pray tell should I accept? Those terms are not favourable for me, if I lose I risk loosing serving staff. Yet if I win I only gain you and a questionable amount of wealth."

"Hmm, I see your point I suppose. How about I give you an example then. See that collar around Felniir? That is a collar made out of a material known as mithril, it, in raw material alone, is worth over a thousand gold pieces in my homeland. As far as I have heard this material cannot be found in these lands, as such has the potential of being worth substantially more." A great many more murmurs break out as they all eye the unsuspecting silvery-green collar around the tigers neck.

Mott too is shocked for a moment, and while he doubts she is actually truthful in what she is claiming, even if the collar were to be made out of silver it would indicate that she had some form of wealth if the way she dressed and the fact that she could use a few pounds of silver on a mere collar for her pet. Besides if he refused the duel he would be seen as a coward for not standing up to a uppity commoner. Besides there was no way a mere commoner, no matter how well dressed, could best a triangle mage such as him, not to mention he would have his guards too.

Colbert was about to step to prevent this, but was stopped by a hand from the headmaster. The headmaster wanted to see the extend of the power held by a familiar of the void, which this woman is one of if his suspicions are correct.

"Very well, I will amuse you commoner, I accept your challenge and your terms. The 'fight' shall be held right here and now, I do not require additional guards." As he states this the surrounding people back off further, especially those that have seen or heard of Raskreia's 'duel' against Guiche, and his guards get into a readied position eying the tiger warily.

"Alright then, your choice. Someone do a countdown." She mentally prepares to cast a **'haste'** on herself and Felniir as soon as the duel begins.

On the sidelines everyone is watching anxiously as professor Colbert steps forth to herald the start of the fight. A certain blue and red head are watching in eager anticipation to see further examples of their new acquaintances magic. The maid because of whom this started in the first place is nervously hoping for Raskreia to come out of this in one piece. Even the kitchen staff had come to watch what caused such a commotion, Marteu was somewhat worried for the woman he had come to respect to a degree. And lastly a rather pissed of pink haired mage is trying to push through the crowd to berate her stupid familiar for her actions.

"Combatants get ready, start at the count of three. 1… 2… 3." No sooner had the last word left his mouth Raskreia had already had herself and Felniir hasted, the latter of whom was now meeting the two guards in a counter charge. The first was instantly knocked to the ground as the big ball of fur jumped at him with enough force to send him into blissful unconsciousness when he hit his on the ground. The other guard tried to stab the big cat in retaliation but was dodged by a entirely too fast cat.

Count Mott no longer underestimating the woman in front of him, as she was what seemed to be a mage, started casting a spell to take care of the tiger. Then he and his remaining guard could take her out easily.

After a short chant he a summoned a relatively small amount of water from a nearby fountain and sent it at the angry feline in a strong torrent. To his surprise however said feline was barely pushed back ten feet from where it originally stood and was now focusing on him instead. But with the cat out of his way the remaining guard had a clear path toward the opposing mage, and if he could get to her he could prevent her from casting magic, allowing the count to take care of that blasted cat, or so was his plan.

What actually happened was that once he got within range of the woman and went to stab her with his spear she simply sidestepped him grabbed his extended spear and gave it a strong tug, strong enough to actually break his hold on the weapon.

Suddenly, to the surprise of Raskreia, the runes on her hand began to glow slightly, and she suddenly knew exactly just how she had to wield the spear she now held. Not only this, but all the muscles in her body tightened like springs ready to explode into action. She had felt like this once or twice before, it felt almost exactly like when she was under the influence of the spell **'Transformation'** but had a slight, or actually quite large, difference. She still felt the ability to cast magic. Grinning at the though of these runes actually being useful (and the fact that she is going to have something to do in trying to recreate them) she gets into a fighting position with the spear worthy of any master. 'Well actually lets us not get ahead of ourselves with that, Thorgal and so could Kwalin could still beat me green and blue with a spear.'

The guard on the other hand only has a moment to contemplate his predicament as his spear's shaft is slammed into his chest with enough force to break off the wood, and send him coughing and wheezing to the ground.

Raskreia looking slightly apologetically at the guard on the floor before throwing the remnants of the spear to the ground sniffing in distaste at the poor craftsmanship of the thing.

Mott for his part is now quite nervous as he is now the one outnumbered, but his pride wont allow him to back off, instead he presses on summoning several icicles from the water he had previously summoned and hurling them at the two in front of him. Felniir takes several glancing blows staining parts of her pure with fur red with blood, Raskreia however gets also hit but all either shatter mid-air just short from impaling her, those that pass her invisible armour are significantly slowed by having to first penetrate through the **'Mage armour'** and as such could not break through her supernaturally tough skin. The cold however does do slight damage to her, even through her natural resistance to it from her Aasimar nature. Nothing to be concerned about however for the time being.

 _ **"Stand back Felniir, ill take care of him, wouldn't want to gang up on the poor man now would be."**_

At Raskreia's words Felniir takes up a less aggressive posture but is no less on guard against attacks.

"Well now my dear Count just you and me, I would suggest you step up your game or you will soon find you have lost."

The taunt obviously got under the man's skin as he grows quite red in the face, almost purple even "You think because you can cast a bit wind magic, and because you and your pet took out my guards, you can best me, a triangle class mage?" as he says that he starts a chant and summons all the water available in the fountain. "My runic name is The wave, and this should show you how I have gained this name." then the water surges forth in a large wave toward Raskreia.

"Well, shit… and I'm not wearing my swimsuit." She was about to evade the wave but realized that there was a amass of students still in range of where the wave will eventually hit. So evasion is out of the picture, even if the teachers, or maybe even the students might stop it in time she was not going to risk harm coming to a bunch of kids. Not to mention that both men that had been incapacitated were in the way of the wave. **'Wall of stone'** _'man, I haven't cast this spell as much as today in quite a while.'_ Not a moment later the water crashed into the newly created wall, and since she had to cover a decent area with it, making it buckle, but it still held. If barely.

Felniir who could see that the wall might not hold, and would fall right on top of the men, still lying there, made a quick decision. She dashed up to each of them tossed the first up on her back, and dragged the other, still conscious one, kicking and flailing out of the way.

After the water subsided the wall finally had enough and fell, almost falling right on top of Raskreia who had to take a short jump backwards to avoid just that. After righting herself once more and brushing off the dust from herself.

"You… you could have hurt people with that. Are you bloody kidding me. ARE YOU? Apsu's tail your men were still in the way."

The anger in her voice made Mott unconsciously take a step back before regaining his composure. "They are all mages, they should be able to defend themselves."

"But you don't know this, and your men were both unable to evade and not mages."

"I pay them to protect me, this includes them protecting my property and honour. They should feel honoured to die if it ensures my victo-."The count suddenly couldn't move a single muscle in his body, he couldn't even breathe at the utterance of two simple words **'Constricting coils'**

Meanwhile Felniir was getting a bit nervous _'Oh gods, that was not the right thing to say. I just might have to stop her from doing something she might regret.'_

A visibly seething Raskreia walks- no, stalks -up to the suffocating man. "Truly, what a impeccable example of nobility. You disgust me, you well and truly disgust me. Scarcely ever have I seen anyone so pathetic." By now she was right in his face, and were he able to his eyes would have widened in fear.

She takes a glance at the still conscious guard who had his eyes filled with both shock and a certain amount of betrayal. The surrounding audience was backing up even further, realizing that at least one of the combatants cares not about them if it means that he wins. Then she turns back to the now nearly unconscious man.

With a sneer she dispels the spell holding him in place, making the man crumple to the floor grasping at his throat. She kicks away his wand and places a foot on his chest preventing him from rising. "Were this a duel to the death, and were there no children watching, you would have not lived past this day. Those that would sacrifice their own men nay, comrades, for personal gain or victory deserve not to live."

Still coughing Mott "W-who are you really. You must be a foreign noble."

"I already told you my name. But now listen to me, and listen well. I am quite the easygoing person. But there are a few things that really piss me off. You have just committed two of those, betrayal and endangering of children. Now you either surrender or I will make you."

Mott briefly had a look of confliction on his face but nevertheless answered "I- I surrender, you have won." Raskreia looks at him for several seconds and eventually takes her foot off of his chest, but gave him a kick into his ribs out of spite.

"Now then. Let us be off then, I want to collect my winnings." As she says that the two guards come up to her.

"Mi lady. If it would be alright could you take our contracts? We no longer wish to work for a man who would throw us away such as this."

Raskreia goes to immediately answer in the positive but realizes a blunder she had made in her haste to try and help people… she doesn't actually have any need for additional servants, never mind that she has no possessions that need tending nor guarding in this plane of existence. _'Damn it, me and my big mouth. Well cant very well take it back now, can I.'_

Thinking for a moment, making the guards a bit nervous of her rejecting them.

 _'Alright think, everything you posses is either on Golarion or in your private plane. These people will not want to work in another reality most likely, and neither would they like to be stuck in a demiplane. How can I get work for them in this world… I GOT IT! But first I need to acquire some things here.'_

"Alright, I will accept your work. But for the moment I do not have anything for you to guard. Not anywhere near here at any rate. But that will soon change if I have any say in it. For now I want you two to return to this guys manor and collect any and all people that want a change of employment. That done I want you to return here, oh and make me a list of people and their individual skills. Even if they don't seem relevant, for example wood- or stoneworking might not seem relevant but I want to know if they have any skill in it anyway."

"Of course, it will be done post-haste Mi Lady."

"Don't rush, take your time, take a week off for all I care, since I wont have anything for you to do right now anyways. Foreigner and all that."

"Thank you Mi Lady."

"And none of that Mi Lady stuff, just call me Raskreia or Miss if you really have to address me something formal, Mi Lady makes me feel old." The guards share a look, and nod at one-another then do a short bow before her and head off to carry out their orders.

Raskreia just turns around, looks at all the dumbfounded expressions of those watching, the downed count nursing a bruised rib, the contemplative look of the headmaster, a… interesting look on Kirche, blank stare on Tabitha, and lastly angry look on Louise.

She scratches the back of her head "Well… that was fun. Anyone know where I can buy some cheap property?"

* * *

 **Omake 1: Efficient Rask**

* * *

"Combatants get ready, start at the count of three. 1… 2… 3." As soon as the words had left his mouth Raskreia had already cast **'Time stop'** leisurely walked up to her opponents and put on manacles on each of their hands that she pulled out of god knows where.

No sooner was she than when she put the manacles on the count the normal flow of time reassumed. She then merely pushed Mott forward who promptly fell flat on his face.

Rask just looks uninterestedly at the count "I think that's a win for me."

* * *

 **Omake 2: Evil Rask**

* * *

"Combatants get ready, start at the count of three. 1… 2… 3." **'Hellfire ray'**

A blast of blood red fire blasts out of Raskreia's outstretched finger hitting Mott square in the chest, reducing his body to naught but ashes, with his soul hurling directly into hell.

With the count

Mott sits up straight and takes stock of his surroundings, he is within the streets of some form of city. Looking around he sees that almost none of the inhabitants are human, quite suitably unnerved by the number of eyes sticking to him he quickly stands up and walks up to a human woman.

"You there, woman, I demand you tell me where I am and how to get back to Tristain academy of magic from here." He sees her face jump from confusion, to shock then anger all of this directed at him.

"Just who do you think you are mortal to demand anything from me?" States the woman with now outstretched pitch black wings. "I think you will need some disciplining. And I will be the one to have the fun of doing it" She states as tightly grips a long silky piece of rope which snakes around Motts legs.

His shouts of protest as he is dragged of, and later screams of pain are largely ignored within the city of Dis. On the brighter side of things an Erinyes now has a plaything for the next few decades until she gets bored.

* * *

 **Omake 3: Vindictive Rask**

* * *

"Combatants get ready, start at the count of three. 1… 2… 3." **'Polymorph any object'** there was no grand wave of energy, no lightshow, no grand runes of power.

Instead where Count Mott once stood now stands Countess Mott. This caused a wave of confusion from everyone, and in the case of the new countess, shock. This allowed Raskreia to cast two more spells **'Quickened: Deeper darkness'** a spell that cast a large area into nearly impenetrable darkness,followed by a spell she cast from a scroll, that she found in a cult of some deity the cultists only referred to as "She-Who-Thirsts" **'Penetrating tentacles.'** The sounds that followed from the black void would plague (or bless) many a night to come for those that were present.

* * *

 **Omake 4: Chaos Champion Rask**

* * *

"Combatants get ready, start at the count of three. 1… 2… 3." Immediately after the start of the duel Felniir went on the defensive, catching any and all spells and blows meant for Raskreia as she chants words that had brought doom to many worlds before. **'** _ **b**_ Y **T** h _ **E**_ **w** _ **O**_ **rm-** _ **EY**_ **e t** _H_ **at** _ **B**_ **Le** E **ds iN alL tHe d** _ **aR**_ **k pL** _ **a**_ **ceS'** As the first part of the horrid spell left her mouth in a tone that sounded as though a thousand mouths cry out in pain it seemed as if the very air gained a red tinge. The blood of Felniir, and one of the guards that had lost his jugular, that had been recently spilled started to boil. **'** _ **By**_ **tHe w** _ **OU**_ **nD T** _ **h**_ **At** N **eVE** _R_ **h** _ **E**_ **a** L _ **S**_ **.'** As she continued her chant it suddenly stared to rain. But it was indeed not water that fell from the sky to water the earth, but blood. By now everyone present tried to stop the madwoman from finishing her spell with any and all spells they might know, but tiger took them all, not dying to wounds that should by all accounts be lethal.

 **'I sUmmON** _ **tH**_ **EE, FrOM THE deepEst** _ **DarKEsT**_ **De** _ **PT**_ **hs of ThE WARP…'** suddenly the rain stopped, the blood that had been spilled no longer boiling, all sound had stopped suddenly as if reality itself quietly anticipated what horror would step into it. Those watching all had their own imagination of what would appear, a fair few imagining elves. None of them could possibly imagine the true nature of what they would soon see, or how far of the were in their speculations. For even their worst nightmares could never possibly do this creature justice

And then the seemingly thousands of voices that had chanted the spell combined into one single dreadful roar to announce the name of the creature **'BLOODTHIRSTER!'** and reality shuddered.

* * *

AN: There done hope you guys liked this chapter, and those omake just made me laugh when I thought of them while writing. Omake Number 2 and 3 where somewhat inspired by me reading the review of 'Me Myself and I' (guest) so shout-out to him. And if someone can guess what franchise I had been hinting at in Omake 3 and 4 gets an imaginary cookie… Alright more than hinting at in number 4. and no I will not make this into a multi crossover.

AN: Ty for all the positive reviews I got for the last two chapters.


	10. Chapter 10

"Speech: Halkeginian"

 _'Thoughts/telepathy'_

 **'Spells and the like'**

 _"Speech: Common/Dwarven"_

 _ **"Speech: Draconic"**_

* * *

TAoM: Headmasters office

* * *

The sizable office is currently being occupied by its owner, his secretary, professor Colbert, and a certain familiar-summoner pair.

The summoner of said last pair was looking an interesting mix of ashamed, furious, scared and proud. How she manages this is anyone's guess.

Ashamed that her familiar had proven more capable than her yet again. Furious for the same reason as well as her doing things without seemingly thinking or consulting her first. Scared off the consequences of her familiars actions as they will be her burden to carry as 'The familiars actions are the actions of the master'. And lastly proud because her familiar managed to beat a triangle class mage and two of his guards with seemingly little to no issue.

It was Osmond that broke the tense silence. "Could you explain to me, miss Familiar, how thinks could escalate the way they did?"

Raskreia looks the headmaster in the eyes "Well, Felniir saw a friend of mine being led away by strangers, and 'stepped' in to prevent anything from happening to her. You were there for the rest." At the end she shrugs entirely unconcerned by the situation at hand.

"Yes, but what moved you to act in such a way. I fell you have made at least one powerful enemy today with your actions. All for some, to us, unknown motive. You even cause the loss of employment for probably a good dozen people now, if not more."

"The fact of the matter stands that I stated 'all those who wish' none of those who will leave Motts service will have been in any way forced to do so." She then proceeds to give the old man a glare that succeeds to make the three adult humans sitting across from her feel like they are in the presence of a predator, and they are the prey. "And the fact that you think that a dozen people, AT LEAST, will leave the service of this man for such, admittedly, vague conditions, is reason enough for me to believe I did the right thing."

"But you still caused those people, if any, to become workless. And I doubt any nobles would hire them once they learn of their situation." The secretary, Miss Longueville Raskreia believes she was introduced as, spoke for the first time in a surprisingly level tone.

The dragonesses in disguise gaze shifts from the old man to the woman but her glare does soften and becomes instead a gaze of determination. "They are in my employ. And I WILL be making sure that they do not suffer from this. And as for their pay, is should not be an issue for the time being. And even if it was, and even if I had to sell my body to ensure they get their pay, so help me whatever god may be listening they will get their thrice-damned pay. They are my responsibility after all."

The response had taken the secretary aback for a moment, and the woman's respect for the familiar rose by quite a few notches because of it. She merely nods in acceptance at Raskreia's determination.

Now it is Colbert who steps up "While your determination is admirable, it will not suffice to feed as many people as I fear will accept your offer. Nor is your body for that matter."

Raskreia simply smiles at him "As I hinted at during my confrontation with the Count I am not exactly in the want for money myself. That comment about Felniir's collar, for the sake of using the same example, was not a bluff as you might be thinking. In fact I had been downplaying its worth by a fair bit, the thing is quite heavily enchanted, and could fetch a good 9000 gold pieces in my homeland. And that is by far not the most valuable item in my possession. I also enjoy a steady income from some projects I own back home."

She takes a moment for the new information to sink in and sees most of them with a shocked look, and also catches a contemplative look from the secretary, one that also contains a shred of greed within it.

"I have no actual work for them yet, in these parts at any rate, but I don't intend to keep it that way however. I will be seeking a method of actually using the manpower now at my disposal. Now if you will excuse me, I have some things to do."

She then just turn around and leaves without waiting to gain permission to do so. Louise after a few seconds charges after her to get her to come back but there is no sign of Raskreia in the hallway, who had only mere moments before left with the use of a **'Dimension door'**.

The pinkette then dejectedly back into the headmasters office sans her familiar. "She is gone. I apologize for her actions she should not have done any of the things she has. "

Osmond merely smiles at his young student " 'tis alright Ms. Vallière. But please do see to it that we do not have a repeat of today's events."

Louise blinks a few times before she realizes what had been said "Of course headmaster, the next time I see her I shall set her straight." Fires of determination could be seen burning in the young mages eyes as she contemplates the various punishments she might use to force some obedience out of her familiar.

* * *

Time skip close to midnight: TAoM library

* * *

We can see a pair of busty women talking animatedly over a pile of parchments, one of them tan the other fair skinned with a rather petite woman sitting to the side simultaneously reading and paying attention to the happenings in front of her.

"- and that would be the rough idea of my plan." States the Fair skinned woman, also known as Raskreia.

"So let me get this straight, you plan on buying a small plot of land from my family, preferably on the border of Tristain and Germania, large enough to build a small complex of buildings, at least large enough for a forge, a barracks, maybe a wall, a shop and a tavern. Which you will then use as a base of operations from whence you will conduct trade with both Tristain and Germania, and possibly other nations. And my family will get paid for the land AND we will get a rather favourable trade-agreement. And you do not even care all that much about the quality of the land only the geographical positioning?" the tone of the other, tan skinned woman, is rather incredulous. This woman is also known as Kirche von Augusta Zerbst

"That is about the gist of it yes. The land could be borderline swamplands for all I care as long as it is positioned on, or next to, a road. Trust me this will be profitable for the both of us, if you can convince your family to sell this small parcel of land to me you and me should profit quite a bit from it. The place will serve as an origin point of trade, and a safe place to rest for travellers. And the Zerbst Family will of course get a discount in all of these things. And as you know I will have a fair number of guards soon, whom I will employ to keep the place secure, perhaps even do some patrols of the area, or escort businesses for caravans. Which in turn would reduce the risk of criminal activity on that route strengthening trade for said route, meaning more profit for your family and country." Raskreia is in full business mode currently, almost no trace of her usual self (other than her almost perpetual smile) present.

Most people forget that she is indeed rather smart, but she does a good job hiding this fact. Something that served her quite well often as people underestimated her. However she does still tend to over-think things.

For the first time since this discussion started the other girl, Tabitha, raises her voice "Catch?"… as much as one can call it 'Raising her voice'.

Kirche is about to, out of habit, translate what her friend means when Raskreia beats her to it. "There is no real catch to this. I merely want to provide a place of employment for the people now employed by me. The fact that this presents a decent opportunity for me to make a profit is secondary."

Kirche looks a bit surprised at Raskreia's ability to understand Tabitha's way of speaking and her quite honest answer. "I only have one last question. Why me? Louise's family borders to mine, they could probably sell you a plot of land too that has an equally favourable location."

The other woman scratches the back of her head at this. "Weeeell. The reason for that is Threefold. First I already have sort of connections to Tristain through Louise, so by engaging with your family through this deal I would forge a connection to a second country, putting me into a more beneficial position as far as trading goes. Secondly I spent the last two hours before coming here, studying this places geography, as well as general information about the nations surrounding this one. And Germania strikes me as the one most monetarily oriented one, meaning it would be highly beneficial to forge connections with that nation. And Thirdly I have a feeling that Louise, and by extension her family, would refuse on principle. That and Tristain is already small enough, the probably do not want to make it even smaller."

The last bit earns her a light laugh from the other woman. "Alright, alright. I will see what I can do. No promises though."

"I did not expect any. If you will excuse me, I shall now take my leave. You are welcome to look over the contract I set up, as well as the trade agreement. Both of which are already signed and are filed in triplicate by me. All that is missing is a signature by one of your family authorized to conduct this trade. And on that note I bid you fair ladies good night." Raskreia turns around with a bow, and heads out of the library to two chorused farewells.

As she exits she smiles down at the waiting Tigress that had laid down outside. _**'Alright ya fuzzball, now to get some personnel from our world in on this.'**_

The Tigress, also known as Felniir Yawns and stretches before standing up and answering her friend. _**'I swear, if this is a repeat of 'The Plan' I will bite you so hard your grandchildren will feel it.'**_

Raskreia shudders at the mention of 'The Plan'… it shall never be elaborated what it entailed for it is the biggest mark of shame on her resume, all that shall be known about it is that it involved: A Cake, a Unicorn, a dozen Kobolds, a deck of many things and a hot air balloon… among other things. The horror… and to think it all started with a birthday party plan.

 _ **'I pray to whatever gods may be listening that it does not end up nearly as horribly… or horribly at all for that matter. But for now, lets organize some workers."**_

And whit that she vanished through a conjured **'Gate'** from this reality. Never to be seen again… wait… wrong. To be seen and heard of quite allot in the coming days.

* * *

Around noon (different dimensions, different times): Golarion, country of Druma, City of Highelm

* * *

Raskreia reappears outside of the massive outer gates of Highelm, one of the centres of Dwarven kind upon Golarion.

The guards and people at the gate, going about their business, are somewhat startled by a human appearing through an oval tear in reality accompanied by a tiger of all things. But most carry on with their business after confirming no danger to themselves.

Raskreia would have appeared inside of the city but knows that dwarves take their security very seriously, and as such rather goes through all the regular procedures, such as going through the front gate. Something made easier by the fact that most gate guards know her directly or of her. Not a hard feat, all things considered, as elven half-dragons are not quite common visitors, especially in a dwarven city. Other than her of course, as she visits quite often.

As she walk up to the gate one of the guards walks up to her. _"Ho there lass, lost yer dragon an' elf bits have ya. Just drop yer illusion so we can verify yer identity properly. Rules be rules, ya understand."_

 _"Yes of course, just had forgotten to remove the illusion, I had just been to a land where the populace treats elves as if we were daemons or something."_ As she says that she drops all the illusions on her reverting to her true, half-dragon, form.

The guard scoffs _"Right bloody foolish if ya ask me, annoying tree-huggers and prancing know-it-alls yer people may be, but daemons they are not. I'll be holding ya up no longer, move on in."_

Doing just that Raskreia moves on through the, partially opened, massive stone gates of the outer wall of one of the biggest dwarven cities upon Golarion. One has to hand it to the dwarves, the know how to keep their holdings secure, and this is but the outer wall… a wall upon which 4 dwarves can walk shoulder to shoulder and still be at no risk of falling off, and high enough to make it difficult for even giants to simply climb over.

Internally she is comparing this city to Tristania, where she had been only a few hours ago. The most obvious difference between the two is the fact that in Tristania one could only see humans, while here it was for the most part dwarves, but a fair number of humans too, as well as representatives of quite a number of other species.

Also there is a much larger amount of guards present, but that can be attributed to the amount of care Dwarves put into security, yet in Tristania she had only seen rather few guards, perhaps it was just that safe a city… yeah right. Something to contemplate on later.

During her musings the Dragoness and tiger pair moved at a quick pace towards the craftsmen district of the city, passing many shops, inns, and taverns and homes on the way.

Eventually she reaches her destination, the temple of Torag.

Now temples of Torag are peculiar in their own right. They are miniature communes, a fortress, church and forge all rolled up into one. These places can in case of a siege be lived in and be manned by a rather large amount of troops/clergy. They are also almost entirely self-sufficient, thanks to their crafting skills and magic and the facilities provided within.

Now, her destination is not the temple itself but rather one of the forges not directly attached to it in its surroundings. More precisely, the forge owned by Kwalin. A rather sizable establishment, a shop being attached to it wherein the weapons and armour's forged within are sold. And as almost all buildings made by devotees of Torag the blasted thing is built to survive the wrath of smaller species of dragons.

Walking inside she sees that business for her friend is going well as usual, there being a decent amount of people inside browsing the wares, and even a small band of what appear to be adventurers placing an order of something with a clerk behind a counter (whom happens to be Kwalin's wife). Kwalin after all is a rather awe-inspiring smith. Honing his crafting skills in equal measure to his abilities to smash faces into pulp.

In the corners to both sides of the door one could see two large armoured figures, which some might identify as Iron golems. Expensive, yes. But most definitely worth the investment. Not that Kwalin couldn't beat any would be thief senseless by himself. But golems are a rather good deterrent from such behaviour.

Kwalin had been rather ingenious with how he made sure that the golems wouldn't miss someone stealing something. All items within the shop have a Arcane mark placed on them which will be removed by one of the staff members of the shop or forge upon purchase. These two golems have been outfitted with the ability to detect magic. And if one of them sees someone leaving the shop with a still marked item… well, it will hurt allot.

She walks right up to the woman who had just finished finalizing the deal with the adventurer party. The woman was rather comely to look at, with her soft features, long obsidian hair and jade eyes. That combined with her exotic looks given from her origins in the far east country of Minkai give her quite the eye-catching appearance. She also happens to be an Aasimar like… err sort of like, Raskreia.

Raskreia fondly remembers how she and Kwalin got together. Both got drunk at Thorgal's birthday which ended with them in bed and her pregnant. And Kwalin being the dwarf that he is took responsibility the only way he knew how. By marrying her.

Its saying something when the gruff dwarf of the group is first to marry, and happily at that, when the rest of the party consists of a bard a sorceress and a paladin (not celibate).

Zarhon and Raskreia both agree it is all thanks to that magnificent beard. Kwalin is stubborn in the fact that he says it is not JUST the beard. And Thorgal being the clean shaving kind of guy, disagrees vehemently.

In either case This is neither here nor there, right now Rask has things to do and places to be.

 _"Hey Katsumi, I see the place is still running great. I'm glad that is the case. Is Kwalin in? I would like to talk to him."_ The now identified Katsumi turns looks at Raskreia in mild surprise then gains a welcoming smile.

 _"Raskreia-san, it is good to see you, you too Felniir-chan. My husband is within the forge, I'm certain you know the way. Go ahead I'm sure he will be happy to see you well."_

Both Raskreia and Felniir nod and move past the woman as she goes to provide service for the next customer.

Moving behind the counter and through a sturdy wooden door, ending up in a narrow stone corridor. She can now quite clearly hear the rhythmic clink of hammers in the next room. Going through the corridor leads her to yet another door, this one made of stone. And after passing this door the pair are hit by a rush of pleasantly, or uncomfortably (depending on who you ask), hot air.

The room beyond is a really advanced workshop, incorporating four separate furnaces and many anvils, and even a setup of workbenches made for making crossbows, or guns (surprisingly enough), all of whom are manned by a myriad of different dwarves, and a single human and gnome. One could see a small, metal, door at the end of the room with the workbenches, which Raskreia knew led to the resident, well alchemist would be to fancy a word for what that man does. Explosives expert. That is the definition she is looking for. Charming little gnome with a knack for making anything that has the potential to explode.

Its times like these, like when she thinks of this gnome, that she is REALLY glad no sort of heat can harm her.

Spotting Kwalin over at one of the Anvils, hammering away at what is either a spearhead or a extremely large arrowhead. His son, Kloin next to him assisting him. Ah Kloin, Charming little fellow. He got all the best traits of both his parents. Charming and good looking like his mother, and strong as well as level headed like his father.

Kloin is first to notice her of the pair, Kwalin being to focused on his work, and notifies his father.

 _"Well, there you are Raskreia. You tired of your little interplanar adventure already? You didn't lead any greater demons here did you, or anything of the sort?"_ After confirming her presence he moves right back to his work. Sparing her barely a glance.

 _"No nothing of the sort. But I do indeed need your assistance with something. I have a plan."_ Immediately Kwalin stops hammering. A few seconds pass before he slowly turns towards Raskreia.

 _"I… I truly fear for us all. Do I even want to know?"_ The tone of his voice is so low Raskreia had to strain to understand him.

 _"Oh come on father, it cant possibly be that bad."_ There was a reason why Raskreia liked the young dwarven aasimar, he usually though her ideas as, while not good per se, but at the very least he did not think of them as things to be afraid of.

 _"EVERY damn time she said those exact words 'I have a plan' we ended up in some sort of peril."_ It seems Kwalin is still trying to convince his son of the, to him, absolute terribleness that are her plans.

 _"Ah! But my dear friend, you would have never met your wife if not for one of my 'plans'. We would have never stumbled across Tom and his necromantic machinations, at least not in time. To name a couple of examples."_ The teasing tone of her voice is not missed by either of them.

The Dwarf looks her deeply in the eyes before sighing deeply. _"Alright you menace_. _I shall listen to what you have to say."_

* * *

One explanation later

* * *

 _"Well I'll be damned, that might actually work."_ To say this was a surprise for the cleric would be saying the sky was blue. He was however also rather impressed.

 _"Father." The_ other three turn toward the youngest of them 4 of them in interest, this was the first time he spoke in a while. _"I would like to volunteer for this endeavour. I believe this could be an opportunity for me to garner my own experiences. And from what I understood of Ms. Raskreia's explanation of her current situation she could use someone to manage this locale for her."_

The dragoness turns towards her friend expectantly, this is not exactly what she anticipated but it was a welcome surprise.

Kwalin takes a moment to weigh the pros and cons of this. After a moment of stroking his beard he suddenly gains a wide grin. _"Aye, I suppose this would be good for you. You wouldn't want to be stuck with your Ma and Pa forever now would you. And honestly I would like to have an investment of mine be in capable dwarf hands. You have my support in this."_ He then turns towards Raskreia _"Alright, in addition to the already agreed upon shares, I would also like to incorporate the request that should this come to fruition Kloin be put into charge of management of the facility."_

Rask just Laughs _"Ha! You say that as if I would refuse. Of course I would be delighted with this. Anyways, let us leave the true planning of the complex for when we know of the number of people I will have at my disposal and once I know the location of it."_

Kwalin nods in acceptance of a postponed topic _"Alright then. And I take it you plan on returning to that world for now?"_

 _"Yes. For now I do. I don't have anything better to do anyways. I do however not plan on staying there for all that long… I wonder though, from what I have heard it had been unheard of for those people to summon anything other than beasts, yet I have been summoned. I cant shake the feeling that the girl who summoned me is in some way shape or form special."_

 _"Well we do have a tendency of stumbling onto the most bizarre things. It shall all be seen in time." Was the dwarfs reply as he is now again hammering away on hot iron._

 _"That we shall. By the by, these runes she imprinted on me. They are rather interesting. They combine the effects of several spells, I would say_ **'Haste'** _,_ **'Transformation'** , _and_ **'Charm person'** _the latter of which is constantly trying to get through my mind blank, which it is not. But the former seem to only be active while holding a weapon. I held a spear earlier, and suddenly knew exactly how to wield it just as if I was under the effects of_ **'Transformation'** _"_

 _"That is indeed intriguing, I WOULD however strongly recommend getting rid of those runes, who knows whether or not it could eventually break trough your mental defences, or you might not be able to renew them, and fall under its influence. My recommendation would be to make a fake mark and remove the original."_

Rask takes a moment to contemplate the dwarfs words, and comes to the conclusion that he is right as he always is. _"You are right, of course. I shall get to it right now. I will take my leave then and we shall talk some other date._ **'Gate'** _"_ and whit that she and the tigress left once more.

Kloin turns away from where the portal used to be towards his father with mild hero-worship in his eyes. _"My respect for you grows every time I think of how you had to deal with her for months on end, for years, father. How do you do it?"_

 _"Allot of patience, son. Allot of patience."_

* * *

Private Demiplane: Raskreia's mansion

* * *

Raskreia now rather tired decides that the first order of business should be… making that damn fake rune, then break the original with a **'Break enchantment'** or if that somehow fails a **'Mages disjunction'** (there is no kill quite like overkill) go to bed, wake up two hours later fully rested thanks to a ring of sustenance (while she only HAS to sleep two hours, she likes to sleep longer. Thank you very much.). Which should allow her to be still back on time at about dawn in Tristain.

Definitely not cutting it short what-so-ever.

"Now, where is that damn ink…" no not at all.

* * *

TAoM: Louise's room

* * *

Shortly after the first rays of sunlight had shown themselves over the horizon an increasingly common occurrence happens within a certain students room. An oval tear in reality opens up to admit the now 'human' once more Raskreia and a, still equally as feline, Felniir.

Scanning the room she notices that her 'master' is still in bed, sleeping. _'Yes, made it. Phew, bloody time difference between dimensions, at least time seems to flow at the same speed here and on Golarion. And to think there is mages that complain about time-zones on the planet they are on. Try going to a place where time thinks it funny to erratically change speed, and then we'll talk.'_

Smiling softly as she approaches the sleeping girl she cant help but think of what the next days might bring.

* * *

Omake: I think I'm in the wrong place…

* * *

After having rested Raskreia sleepily rips a tear into reality using **'Gate'** , not particularly caring to concentrate on it properly.

As she steps through with still half closed eyes she suddenly gains a sense of vertigo, specifically from the fact that she is not free falling hundreds of meters from the ground.

Instantly shocked into wakefulness she unfurls her wings and starts hovering mid air.

 _'Completely safe my ass, that scared a good decade off my lifespan.'_

Looking around she notes that; A: It is night.

B: she is rather high up, giving her a beautiful view of the surrounding landscape

And C: the surrounding landscape is one she has never before seen, meaning she is not where she wanted to be.

At that moment Felniir too steps through the **'Gate'** but lacking wings keeps plummeting towards the ground.

Not heeding the string of curses being hurled at her in multiple languages, getting more colourful by the second, by her falling feline friend (try saying that three times real fast) she darts off after her.

 _'Well, those "Boots" of the cat seem like a rather good investment for her now, don't they.'_

On the ground

Harry is not having a good day, not at all.

It started well enough all things considered, tough that changed when Voldemort decided today was the day he would attack. And while they managed to eliminate a good portion of his army they still lost in the end.

Now here he is, his friends and him being held at wand-point by the megalomaniacal psycho dark-wizard and his inner circle, while the big bad himself is gloating full force.

 _'Just kill us already you git, or put me under crucio, it still wouldn't be as bad as having to listen to you.'_

As Harry looks around he is both sad and proud. They are just students and yet almost won against the army of a dark-lord. And even some of the Slytherins joined in the battle, he notes when his eyes fall on one Daphne Greengrass and Tracey Davis.

 _'Nevil even managed to kill Nagini, so all of Voldy's Hocruxes are gone, not that it matters now.'_

Just as the Death Eaters are about to start executing them one by one they begin to hear a faint sound. A sound that grows louder by the second, and soon some realize it is someone, a woman, yelling.

The yelling at first, even tough no one understands it, sounded angry or irate becomes more frantic and urging as it approaches.

Harry looking around for the source of the voice finally has his eyes land on a white blur rapidly descending at an alarming speed. Others too have the idea to look upwards, and for one Lucius Malfoy this will be the last action of his life as 400 pounds of feline crash into him at terminal Velocity.

And while Felniir is more or less fine having worn an item that makes falling much less dangerous, the man she landed on was not so fortunate, being turned into a broken corpse on the ground.

Felniir for her part decides that, no, she is not dealing with this right now, and no, she cannot be asked to care, and yes she is hoping she is still asleep and this is just a bad dream. So one can excuse her for laying down (inside the puddle of gore) and falling asleep.

Silence, complete silence envelops the courtyard, no one can believe what just transpired. Then they hear the faint flapping of wings, looking up once more an even more shocking sight greets them. A woman, of stunning beauty rivalling or even surpassing that of Veela, had they not their allure. But more shocking is the fact that she is not human, nor Veela, as a pair of draconic wings, a long reptilian tail and set of rather large horns adorn her.

 _ **"Damn cat, this isn't the time to take a bloody nap… probably not the best choice of words on my part there all things considered."**_ The language the woman speaks in is not one known to any of them present, it does invoke something primal however. It inspires a sense of foreboding and innate power that not even parseltongue possesses.

Suddenly a beam of angry red magic hurls toward the woman, whom for her part just beats her wings once to swear to the side letting the spell sail completely past her.

The dragon-woman turns towards the person who shot at her, that person being the ministries executioner of creatures Mc. Something, Harry couldn't really remember. Then in perfect English she says towards the her attacker, still the very image of calm "Well, that was rather rude of you wouldn't you agree? Alright, now its my turn. **'Boneshatter'** "

Harry didn't know exactly what to expect when the woman did a short chant in a language he couldn't understand for the life of him, then just merely wave her hand in the general direction of her target, he did however expect some form of spell to fly from her hand, which would then be blocked or dodged, initiating a duel or the woman being mobbed.

Instead the courtyard is filled with the sound of the entirety of a mans skeleton simultaneously breaking and his lifeless corpse falling to the ground. Followed closely by angry, or shocked mutterings.

The woman just looks on in surprise as if she couldn't believe what happened either. "Uhhh." Was the first sound that left her mouth afterwards confirming his thought about her surprise "Well that just happened." To Harry her attitude towards having just killed a man is entirely too blasé but he does distinctly hear her mutter something that makes him even more confused "I'm too damn used to fighting things that can survive being hit by ungodly things." He can also tell that the Death eaters are soon to be out of their shocked state and will most likely retaliate against this mystery woman.

"Alright listen, I will just retrieve my cat and be on my-" She doesn't get to finish her sentence as a bolt of sickly green light hits her square in the face.

Everyone present expects the woman to plummet to the ground dead, instead, she is still hovering in the air completely unharmed. Mind you she looked irate now, no longer smiling lightly. And somehow the absence of a smile on this woman's face makes Harry more afraid of his continued existence than being at wandpoint by Voldemort. Not to mention she just… you know… SURVIVED THE KILLING CURSE!

Everyone present was once more struck speechless, apparently Harry no longer is the only person to survive the killing curse, and this woman doesn't even have scar to show for it.

Suddenly a corona of spell-fire is being flung at the woman, all of which blocked by a invisible orb shaped shield surrounding her,

Raskreia for her part barely had time for casting an **'Emergency Force Sphere'** before a plethora of spells would have hit her.

 _ **"Oh for the love of… cant I go anywhere without being shot at."**_

Raskreia still, in her little sphere of 'you-cant-touch-me-so-you-might-as-well-stop-trying' (name work in progress) lets out a deep sigh… "Man, you guys suck, don't you have any spells that… I don't know… don't need to directly hit me to work. Like for example… this **'Overwhelming presence'** as she casts the spell she pulls out a rod of persistent metamagic.

Suddenly everyone in the courtyard is hit with a wave of feeling completely and utterly insignificant in comparison to this woman, The feeling is even worse for the death eaters on whom the spell is concentrated upon. The death eaters affected by the spell can do naught but fall to their hands and knees and grovel before what must obviously be some sort of divine entity.

Only a few manage to resist the spell among them, those being the Lestranges and Voldemort himself. This changes however a short moment later as the same sort of feeling repeats itself and now only Voldemort is still standing albeit with a little difficulty and he is still slinging increasingly obscure spells at the hovering woman.

"You know… I'm rather impressed that you can still stand" the god, no. The woman, Harry has to remind himself, gave them something he had thought lost. Hope.

"Buuut… I'm going to be late for breakfast if I stay any longer, soooo ta-ta" He only wished she would take this more seriously

 **'Summon mosnter: IX, Elder fire elementals'** Now Harry is almost ready to faint _'Then again with friends like these I suppose she doesn't need to take this seriously'_ this is the only thing he can think of as 3 behemoths made out of solid fire appear out of nowhere and start pummelling the ever-living snot out of Voldemort.

As he, and everyone else, was either still grovelling on the ground or gawping at the spectacle of the dark lord being beaten to death by three giant fire-men (the literal meaning) the all missed their saviour walk up to her tiger and **'Gate'** them away.

* * *

Alright, the omake ended up a bit longer than planned, but it just didn't want to leave my head. No this is not something that actually happened in case you are wondering, it was just an idea buzzing in my head, and yes I'm quite aware that they would have put up a bit more of a fight, but the end result would have been the same either way, and I am not going to write a detailed play-by-play for an omake fight. This was merely something that didn't want to leave me alone.

Now I know what many might be thinking, "How did she survive the AK", or you might not be wondering this at all, but here is the answer anyway. I based the AK on the closest 3.5/Pathfinder equivalent, that being **'Power word: Kill'** a no save instant death spell that kills anything at or below 100 hp. So basically took power word kill, gave it a required touch attack (AK needs to hit after all) and done… and since Rask has WELL over 100hp being a bit even over 200hp was completely unaffected.

Buuuut I also decided I will likely follow this story up (if I ever bloody finish it) with a number of stories with Raskreia going to some other places, basically some more crossovers.

If you have any suggestions about what place she might mix up and try to destroy the plot of next I will gladly listen to them (reasons as to why specifically franchise X would be much appreciated too).


	11. Chapter 11

"Speech: Halkeginian"

 _'Thoughts/telepathy'_

 **'Spells and the like'**

 _"Speech: Common/Dwarven"_

 _ **"Speech: Draconic"**_

* * *

TAoM: Courtyard

* * *

It had been close to a week since Raskreia had fought count Mott, and since she returned from Golarion.

Also it had been a week since she got yelled at by a tiny pink haired girl who thought she had to obey her. _'Oh well, lets keep her thinking that. Its quite interesting here so far, and I still have this feeling that big things will happen if I stick around.'_

Since then a few things happened. Kirche did send a letter to her family but a reply has yet to come. Her new employees had arrived earlier that week, and she told them to take some time to all visit family or what have you.

They also compiled her a list of what who could do. And she was rather pleased with the outcome. All in all she got nearly two dozen guards, and ten serving staff.

Their skills were not all that impressive, but she didn't expect anything much anyway. But one did claim he was a decent smith, and another said she was rather good at tailoring for example.

No matter. For now she had to wait on whether or not the Von Zerbst would sell a parcel of land.

In the meantime classes at this academy had started up again. Raskreia had taken the opportunity presented to her and sat in on a few classes to see what was up with their magic. And she was of somewhat mixed opinion.

On one hand their magic is rather primitive being limited to only the four main elements, but they could use them to decent effect. What DID impress her was the knowledge that some people in this land could PERMANENTLY transmute rock to gold. Now mind, it isn't impossible in Golarion, or its (arguably) sister world Faerun, it is just that it isn't easy by any means. In fact the, relatively, easiest way is by using a philosopher stone.

Well, that is what most are supposed to think, Raskreia is rather sure there is easier ways, but they are either a jealously guarded secret, or a long lost art. But no matter, it isn't like Golarion does not have a constant influx of gold through various means, such as planar trade. If that were not the case, well, the world would run out of gold, what with all the means it is lost, such as certain creatures eating it, it being lost in deep caverns, dragons hoarding, or wizards using it up in some ritual or another.

She also found out that it was almost completely pointless to attend these classes. Whatever method these people used to cast spells was incompatible with her worlds. If she understood correctly, they did not draw their magic from the weave, but rather had some form of innate form of energy upon which they drew their power. She had her doubts about that as all magic, including that of the gods, originates from the weave.

Her theory instead is that they work like sorcerers and can store magic from the weave inside their body and then use that to cast their spells, which they replenish during sleep or rest.

So after the fourth day she stopped going to classes, and instead started to entertain herself otherwise, like for example do some woodcarving.

Which led to the current situation in a small clearing of the adjacent woods.

Her staring at the juvenile blue dragon she had seen a few times over the days and at the summoning. The same blue dragon she wilfully chose to ignore up until now.

It is however hard to ignore a rather large reptile that is right in front of oneself.

 _ **"Er, hi?"**_ she can practically feel some metaphysical being rolling its eyes at her eloquent wording.

 _ **"Kyuuu, you speak? YAY! You can speak growly tongue."**_ Raskreia may or may not have dropped the carving she had been working on, a rather nice small figurine of a pegasus, in shock.

 _'By Apsu did this… what… I… is this even a Darastrix? No way in the nine infernal hells and the infinite abyss would a Darastrix, even a young one, call its own language "Growly tongue". Buuut now I know its female at the very least. If it wasn't so god damn humiliating to have half of my ancestry mocked in this way, this would have also been one of the most adorable things I have seen and heard in a long time.'_

And just when Raskreia was about to voice her thoughts the dragons eyes widen comically.

 _ **"Oh no, Big Sis told me not to speak to anyone. I will sooo get in trouble."**_

 _'Wait. Someone forbade her to talk? Who would forbid a child to talk? And more importantly why?_ '

 _ **"Er, don't worry about it. I wont tell anyone if you don't tell anyone either."**_ The smile and enthusiastic hug she got in return of that statement would have made Raskreia quite happy.

If, of course, said enthusiastic hug had not been delivered by rather heavy, not to mention strong, giant reptile. Raskreia could actually hear her bones creak and ribs start to crack, which worried her. Not just because it was painful, but because this Darastrix had obviously poor control of her own draconic strength.

 _ **"Really? That is so nice of you. Thank you, thank you, thank you."**_

 _ **"No. Problem. Air!"**_ it is surprisingly hard to talk with a compressed ribcage.

 _ **"Oh, sorry, sorry."**_ She thankfully lets go of the now rather dishevelled woman, who is spending her time right now greedily gulping down air. As well as trying to soothe her ribs. While nothing severe it is still the most painful thing that has happened to her in quite a while.

 _ **"Its fine, really. Alright sooo, I'm Raskreia, you?"**_ _'HAH, take that prejustice,, I found a good blue dragon. I hope.'_

 _ **"I'm Illococoo, but Big Sis calls me Sylphid"**_ she steps closer towards Raskreia and takes a sniff at the woman, making her just a bit self-conscious. _**"Why do you smell like me Ms. Raskreia?**_

Unnoticed by the dragon, Raskreia's left eye starts to twitch lightly _'Oh for the love of… DAMN YOU DRAGON NOSES!'_

 _ **"Probably because of your hug earlier."**_ _'Come on, come on, come on'_

 _ **"No, no. That cant be, that cant be. I came here because you smelled like me in the first place."**_

 _'Curses, oh well'_ _ **"Well alright, sorry for lying. I am like you, but I am only half a dragon. My father is a dragon. And my mother was a human"**_ _'Not technically a lie on that part, father IS a dragon, and mother WAS a human. She is a god now, but pesky little details. Sometimes I wish father had not been such a xenophile, maybe then id be a fully fledged dragon, rather than just half a dragon with a inaccessible divine heritage.'_

Raskreia is broken out of her musings by the dragon, Sylphid, once more sniffing her.

 _ **"Ohhh, so that is why you smell so weird. So you can change yourself as well?"**_

Before she can ask what she means in place of the dragon now stands a buxom, blue haired beauty of a woman rivalling even Raskreia.

That and she was completely nude. Raskreia just cant help but blush slightly as she lets her eyes briefly roam over the nude woman's body. _'Damn, couldn't she have hugged me like- BAD RASKREIA! She is still just a kid, BAD! But is she really just a kid looking like… THAT!'_

"See, see? I can look like a human too!" she looks by far too excited at her display of transformation and the mastery of the local tongue in Raskreia's mind considering her lack of clothing. Then again dragons do often forget social norms and such that 'Tiny mortals' set for themselves. Well to be fair she had been nude the entire time before transforming anyway.

"Right, yes. I can see that you can transform. But you forgot something, clothes."It is rather hard for Rask to stay focused, not just because of the obvious but also because a certain tiger is trying very hard (and failing equally hard) not to laugh at her current predicament. Or her facial expression, one of the two, maybe both.

"Why would I need clothes? I think they would be uncomfortable." _'Alright, patience Raskreia. Patience is a virtue. And if you can endure months with Zarhon being bored, you can endure this.'_

"Well you see, you are transforming to more easily interact with humans, right?" she gets a nod "Then you need clothes, humans wear clothes when they interact with one another. To not do so is considered inappropriate. And many will refuse to even talk to you like this."

The shocked and slightly confused look on the face of Sylphid did somewhat make Raskreia hope that she got at least most of the explanation.

"Well I think that is stupid, why bother with clothes?" Rask cant help but face-palm, and Felniir's muffled laughter is not helping any. _'Is this some deities type of humour? Why do I need to explain to someone the concept of modesty?'_

"Humans wear clothes so that they may stay warm. Dragons might be comfortable in just about any weather, but humans are not. Clothing serves to protect them. Also they have this concept called modesty. Basically it means that being nude is not something one does in the presence of strangers. ESPECIALLY as a woman. To put it really simply, it is only acceptable to be fully nude in certain scenarios. Like when being alone, with a person you love, for example, and in baths. To be seen nude is considered a great show of trust by humans." _'Why me'_ mentally she cant help but whine _'I sincerely hope I wont have to also give her The Talk. I am not doing that AGAIN.'_

Sylphid cups her chin with one hand and takes up a look of severe concentration. "Sooo, you are saying that I can only be nude while I look like a human, when I'm with people I trust, or it cannot be avoided?"

"YES! Er, I mean. Yes that is exactly what I was trying to say." _'Apsu… Thank you!'_

Rask's mental cheering gets halted by the suddenly downtrodden look on Sylphid's face. "B-but I don't have any clothes. D-does that mean I cant stay as a human?" she is even starting to tear up now, which slightly breaks the half-dragons heart, as she goes to pat the other woman on the head comfortingly.

"Oh don't cry. I'm sure I can lend you some of mine, come **'Gate'** " and so a half dragon and a dragon walk through a portal. That would probably be a good start for a joke.

They both however miss a petite blue haired girl enter the clearing just as the portal closed, whom was looking at the tigress, who had opted to stay, in interest and confusion.

Now Tabitha has seen Raskreia talk to Felniir quite often, and she had also deducted that Felniir is quite capable of speech herself. She simply is not proficient with the local language. Still it would be enough for them to communicate.

"Sylphid?" was all the blue haired girl said to which Felniir raised her head to look at the human who had come here, most likely looking for her familiar.

 _"Raskreia."_ was all that the tigress said to which Tabitha nodded. And as such ended the first conversation between these two individuals. One that would be fate to repeat itself, most likely, many times in the near future. Probably with the exact same words too.

Communication successful.

* * *

Tabitha opted to stay just like the tigress, for convenience sake.

And it was as such that Raskreia and Sylphid found them both over half and hour later. With Felniir sleeping and Tabitha leaning against her as a pillow, reading.

The latter of the recently returned duo is now no longer wearing naught but her birthday-suit.

Instead she is wearing a pair of leather boots, black pants, and a blue silk west over a white shirt with a blue tie. Surprisingly she looks rather happy and comfortable with her now clothed state.

As Tabitha looks over as she hears footfalls very close her eyes widen slightly in shock at the fact that her familiar is in human form next to Louise's familiar. _'If people find out she is a Rhyme dragon the will hunt her down.'_ She goes to grip her staff, but a low growl from the tiger she is leaning on deters her from it. _'Even If I can take her out, I am by far too close for comfort to this tiger to try anything.'_ Her thoughts on severing a loose end are interrupted as a blue blur rams into her hugging her just as enthusiastically as Raskreia was earlier that day. Just much less painful. The sudden impact of human-shaped dragon gaining them a irate growl from the now awake Felniir.

Felniir glares at the two had woken her up so rudely, she then trots off, climbs a tree and lays down on a suitably large branch to continue her nap. Raskreia being the only bystander in all of this cant help but laugh, it almost reminds her of home.

"Hello Tabitha, sorry I borrowed your familiar for a bit. I have however just now successfully taught her the concept of modesty… I think." she states a bit nervously, counteracted by the enthusiastic nodding from Sylphid.

"Kyuu, Big Sis. Look at the nice clothes Rask gave me." Tabitha cant help but agree to the fact that the clothes are indeed of decent quality, they also accent Sylphid rather nicely.

Still there is one problem "Secret?" and the childish dragon's eyes widen comically.

"Kyuu, Rask said she would not say a word." _'Well that is a start'_ she thinks as she turns towards the woman in question receiving a nod in return.

"Yeah, don't worry, wont say a word. Though I don't know why." And she doesn't, to her keeping the ability of a dragon to talk and shapeshift secret is like trying to keep the fact that water is wet secret.

Sighing Tabitha realizes she would have to say more than usual to explain "Only Rhyme dragons can speak. They are hunted to near total extinction for ingredients." What she did not expect is for Raskreia to growl in response. An honest to Brimir growl.

"Hunted to extinction for INGREDIENTS!? Don't worry, if they try to go after Syl they will have to get through me first." If she didn't know any better Tabitha would have claimed that she saw Raskreia's eyes briefly start glowing.

Though she has to wonder "Why?" if her track record keeps up she should understand her less that complete sentences.

"Why do I care?" _'And it does keep up'_ she confirms the woman's guess with a nod.

And then something, that has not happened in a long time, happened. She was completely stunned.

Raskreia's form shifted rapidly. Her hair gets parted by a set of blood red horns, and a set of fin like protrusions that might be ears. A few scales grow beneath her eyes, which now sport vertical slits like a dragons. She sprouts a set of large golden leathery wings, as well as a reptilian tail. Her arms, up to her elbows, get completely covered in the same golden scales, her hands becoming dangerous looking claws, that nonetheless seem to keep their functionality as hands, judging by the way she is twirling her hair playfully with one of them.

Raskreia then gives a large grin, revealing rather wicked looking teeth. Those of a mostly carnivorous animal notes Tabitha.

"Oh, you could call it a personal matter."

Poor Tabi's head is whirling with possibilities, but decides to just take the most direct route.

"What are you?" she has probably not said as many words in one day in a long time both idly muse to themselves.

"I'm a half dragon. And before you ask, my father was the dragon and my mother the human. And yes Father can transform." _'So could mother, but… details unimportant'_

 _'That makes sense. If a Rhyme dragon transforms he might actually be able to sire children with a human, and I suppose this is the result'_ "Natural form?"

"Yeah this is my usual form. I'm using a magic item to change myself to fully look human. Cant do it naturally, and you wouldn't believe how hostile some places are to someone who looks like this" She could, oh she could believe how many would react badly to someone to look like her. However she could also see how she might get quite a few positive reactions.

She herself does not really care that Raskreia is not really human. After all she already fleetingly knows the woman and from what she could judge so far she is one of the most compassionate people she had met. So her next words would not be surprising to those that know Tabitha "Keep secrets?"

"Sure. Well keep each others secrets. Hey, you wanna go grab something to eat? Well of course we cant go to eat at school if we want Syl to eat with us, so I could teleport us to, pretty much anywhere you would like actually as long as you can give me an accurate description of the place if I haven't been there before, my treat."

Tabitha had of course knows what teleportation is, but only from her books. Through their magic something like it would be impossible. But who was she to turn down free food? "Capital?"

"Sure thing." She then turns to her feline friend still napping on the tree _**"You gonna be okay alone?"**_

 _ **"Just go, I want to sleep."**_ Rask cant help but chuckle a bit.

"Well this is a go then. Grab my hands both of you." She waits for them to do so and without further warning casts her spell **'Greater Teleport'**

* * *

Later that day: TAoM, Louise's room

* * *

Louise is quite annoyed. In fact that word just might not do her current state of mind justice.

All she wanted was a familiar. Sure she got her wish up to that point. But perhaps she should have specified that her familiar is supposed to listen to her, and not just do what ever she damn well pleases.

The last few days Raskreia has refused to accompany her to her classes even after being practically ordered to do so, and even threats of not being provided food don't seem to phase her in the slightest. She is actually, now that Louise thinks about it, ignoring or outright refusing pretty much all orders she had been given.

And now, she hasn't seen her blasted familiar all day. Not only that but in two days is the familiar exhibition, and she has completely forgot about it. And what is worse, the princess will be there. She must most definitely win first prize.

As such she is sitting in her room, brooding and thinking about ways to punish her familiar, when her room door opens to reveal the subject of her current thoughts walk in. With a half hearted "Evening" she almost literally throws herself into her bedroll, her clothes shifting to nightwear mid fall.

"Where have you been familiar?" it was a sing of complete disregard that Rask did not even lift her head to answer the question.

"Capital." Was all that was heard of her muffled voice through the soft pillow her head is currently resting on.

The noble girl was slowly loosing her patience with her 'unruly' familiar "And what pray tell were you doing in the capital without me?"

"Don't know why it is your business but okay. I was there to get food and forge friendly bonds."

At this point the young girls eye starts to twitch in annoyance, but decided that going along this path will never lead her to the topic she actually wants to discuss.

"No matter, in two days is the familiar exhibition. And the princess is going to be here."

"And?"

"And obviously you will have to think of something to do to perform."

"Is this mandatory for you or can you opt to not do this?" _'Well it is no refusal yet'_ though Louise

"It is mandatory to perform, and I understand that you would not like to be showcased like an animal. But the rules are the rules. And since we have to participate anyways might as well try to win." A moment of silence that stretches just long enough for Louise to feel uncomfortable precedes Raskreia's answer.

"Fine, and I think I already know what to do."

"Great! But what are you planning?"

At this Rask, for the first time in this conversation, lifts her head up from her pillow to give her summoner a cheeky grin. "I will sing. I will be back in time for the exhibit, Ciao." And whit that she once more stands up from her bedroll and walks outside, after changing her clothes into her day clothes. Leaving behind a confused, yet intrigued, Louise.

Briefly Raskreia pops her head back into the room and tosses Louise a piece of paper, can you give that to Felniir? Kay, bye!" and with that she is gone once more.

Outside, unbeknownst to anyone Raskreia takes out a scroll, presses it to her chest, both her shirt and scroll briefly glowing before she casts the spell inscribed on the scroll. **'Sending'** "Hey Zarhon, wanna do a performance with me in two days?."

Her reply takes almost a minute, probably due to the bard being distracted, and is a simple "Sure thing. I am actually in the same world as you currently, meet at-" followed by a string of teleportation coordinates.

Deciphering the coordinates she concludes that it is inside Tristania, confirming it once more to herself that she got the coordinates right, she casts **'Greater Teleport'** once more and appears inside the capital for the second time that day.

* * *

Tristania

* * *

This time however she is in a part of town that she was not in before. In front of her is a place that she assumes Zarhon would like to visit. Charming Fairies inn. _'Oh well, no time like the present.'_

As soon as she walks into the Inn she is absolutely not surprised. The place is chock full of men, with women in skimpy outfits working as serving staff.

Once she is fully inside a fair many heads turn into her direction, and many a lecherous look is thrown at her. Not that she is not used to such being the case considering the places she had to put up whit over the years of adventuring. As such she scans the area for her long time friend.

And she does indeed spot Zarhon at a corner table… at the far end of the room. _'I swear he does this on purpose'_

Mentally steeling herself she prepares to walk over to the other end of the room, which is filled with men who are looking at her like wolves look at a piece of meat. And then she is enveloped in the second bone-crushing hug that day… well it would be bone crushing for a human at least.

"Ohh another fairy enters me mademoiselle's Charming in. Welcome, welcome!" the, err… man? That had just hugged her lets go of her but keeps his? Hands on top of her shoulders, in a way that might be meant as comforting. "Come, come. Let me show you around!"

Looking over at Zarhon for help she sees only her friend collapsed at his table struggling to breathe from laughter. _'I will gut him, I will burn him, and then I'm going to…_ ' "Sorry, Mi Mademoiselle?" At his nod that that was indeed what he wanted to be called she continues "But I came here because I was invited by a friend. In fact he is rightoverthereBye!" as she says the last part almost to fast to be understood she is half way across the room before anyone even noticed she moved in the first place.

She takes a seat on the other part of the corner bench so as to have a wall behind her back yet still be able to face her friend, she and him both are ignoring the looks they are both getting from a fair few patrons, many of whom go back to what they were doing previously after a few moments. The rest, mostly those who are alone, either ogle Raskreia or are throwing Zarhon Jealous looks. Not that either of them really fear any of these people acting on their possible desires.

 _"Soo, hi."_ Raskreia begins after Zarhon got his chuckling under control, switching to the common tongue to ward of any unwanted listeners.

He does a mock bow, as far as he can while still sitting, before playfully replying _"Why hello there Mi Lady, to what do I owe the pleasure. Do you come here often?"_ Rolling her eyes at the bards attics she cant help but miss the fact that over half of their party is not currently present.

Normally Thorgal would be sitting next to Zarhon and Kwalin next to her, with Felniir at her feet under the table, most likely snoozing. All of them would joke around share food, jokes, things they had done in the day where the others were not present. Or even plan their next adventure. Or, as was often the case, just enjoy the pleasant company.

But it is sadly not to be, and it is just the two of them, in a tavern far, far from home, their other friends not here, and them only meeting because one wanted something from the other. And this after almost a month of not seeing one another. She really misses when the five of them would travel around.

 _"Why my good sir, do I look like I would frequent places such as this? Well the staff does seem enticing but the crowd still needs quite a bit of polishing."_ Nostalgia or not she wont allow a chance to joke around to pass her by.

 _"HAH! I knew you would like the serving girls here just as much as me. Tough as much as I loathe it, there is a strict 'No Touching' rule in place. Personally I fancy the one over there with the chestnut hair."_ This is something the two of them would occasionally engage in, telling the other which of the people (excluding party members) they found the most attractive in any given tavern they visit.

 _"Hmmm, I myself would say that man over there by the girl with the blonde hair looks quite handsome. But the girl over there behind the counter, the one with the black hair, is the clear winner for me."_ He briefly looks over whom she meant nods and turns back to her.

 _"Good choices I would say, though I admit I still am, and always will be, a poor judge of attractiveness in men. Anyway, a performance you say. Why you came to just the right tiefling. What did you have in mind?"_ The amused glimmer in his eyes is telling her that he is enjoying himself at least as much as she is.

 _"Well I was thinking of singing with you providing background music. I will leave it to you to decide a song."_ He nods in acceptance, and no small amount of anticipation, and she then watches him take out a few sheets of old paper. On a closer look it becomes apparent that it is notes and text for a song.

 _"I found these here a few days ago in a dusty old store. Clerk claimed it was something summoned from a different world. Don't know if it is true, but I do like the song that is written on it. And I would wager it works better with a female vocalist than it does with a male."_ Reading the text and skimming thenotes she has almost immediately fallen in love with it.

The text is in a language called 'Latin'. With, what is most likely a translation, in a language called 'English' next to it. Raskreia had never heard of either language to be honest but she did like the Latin version more personally. The song itself is on the slow side and if she were to guess, would be brimming with emotion if sung and played right, which she intends to do.

 _"Wow, I would love to sing this. Let us go right now."_

Both of them stand up after paying and tipping the waitresses, even if Raskreia didn't eat or drink anything, and make for the door. Skilfully dodging any and all of the more frisky patrons.

Walking into a side alley, all but ignoring a would be mugger, who for some reason now has a strong urge to go turn himself in to the guards. Not in the least bit cause by a **'Suggestion'** cast by a bard, that would make no sense.

A quick **'Gate'** later they are no longer in a dingy alley, but rather inside a most comfortable living room. _"Well, time to make music."_

* * *

Omake: Familiar of Thorn

* * *

Deathfang is not a happy gnoll, oh no.

The past few years were both incredibly fun yet also annoying to him.

First he gets imprisoned and sentenced for execution just because he ate a few dead humans on some battlefield. HE DIDN'T EVEN KILL THEM HIMSELF! Damn humans not making sense.

Next he is stuck with a random assortment of people inside of a prison, well they help him escape, so its fine.

Well not so fine because he gets roped into being a servant for some guy named Thorn, well fine by him he gets to kill and eat people, so why should he care that he is not allowed to kill these other three coming with him. And so was The Ninth Knot of Thorn formed. The last, and soon to be, most feared knot.

The next years were AWESOME, took a fort with just the four of them, killing everyone and everything in it. Fortifying a mountain, subjugated a tribe of boggards, killed a dragon. And then… oh and then they laid siege on a holy fortress. THE WORKS! One thing led to another and now the four of them killed their old master and took the entire island for themselves in the name of Asmodeus. After, of course, they had laid low a Solar at the climax of an epic battle for dominance of the island. You know, the usual.

Nowadays Deathfang is the commander of the kingdoms armed forces (Living ones and a good portion of the undead), leading their armies forth to conquer more lands. And he most definitely is making for an imposing figure wherever he goes. Clad in unholy full-plate, the legendary Helbrand (now fully re-forged and empowered) in hand, and riding on his trusty Nightmare steed.

Deathfang, while not exactly smart, is not stupid. Not as stupid as many would think at least.

He knows that the other three of their group are dangerous, and they know he is dangerous. So it is a mutual agreement between them to not mess with any other of the four. And by agreement he means a soul binding contract with no loopholes.

Well, Deathfang is fine with it, he knows he is the strongest of the four. The Rogue is a coward, but admittedly he can hold his own in a fight, even if he is a figurative glass cannon that is more geared for subterfuge deceit and tricks than actual combat, not that he minds all that much, the rogue had often included him as part of some plan or another which cumulated in him killing already battered and beaten people.

The Vampire, well she is next to him the most dangerous. But not to him, most of her magic would fail to harm him in any significant way. Not that he could harm her all that easily in turn. But him and her are on rather good terms usually, so he doesn't care. He kills things, eats their flesh and she animates their skeletons, SIMPLE! By the fires of the pit, she had helped him in becoming a graveknight, knowing that she would be even less of a threat to him should he decide to chop and mince her. That was one heck of an arduous process, it was.

But again, thanks to her magic they couldn't really kill one another all that easily.

Deathfang does not know what to think of the cleric. He is the both the least and most likely to break the contract. Being a devoted to Asmodeus he would never break a contract. Finding loopholes however is a different thing altogether.

Now, you might ask 'Why would he not be happy? He is the most powerful individual his species probably has to offer. He can rip a human in half with his bare hands, has eaten angels on a semi-regular basis. Not to mention he gets to kill lots of things and lead armies. AND is a damn graveknight to boot .What more does he want?'

Well that is simple really, he is falling… through space… and probably time (but he couldn't be too sure about that last one). And he HATES teleportation of ANY kind. Especially the ones he didn't agree to. Which this is. 'How did this happen?' you might ask.

He does not exactly know, but he knows that he will rip apart whoever did this, and everyone that he can get to before he is retrieved by either his steed or his companions. But especially whoever did this will die a most gruesome death.

All he knows is that he, and a small part of his army. Had broken off from the main mass of murder that is their troops to satisfy the sudden bloodlust that had befallen the gnoll. As such they fell upon a small village in the middle of nowhere, not worth subjugating. Oh how Deathfang hated that word, he would much rather murder EVERYTHING and eat their young.

Mhh the succulent flesh of infantile humans.

But noooo he has to actually leave as many people alive as possible. As they are trying to take the places over, not raze them to the ground. Not that Deathfang could see the point as a destroyed place was yours as well.

Nor was he allowed to eat the infants, because they made of the best recruits apparently. Meh he can see the use in that at least. Considering a good part of his army was once infants they had captured and brainwashed to the purpose of Asmodeus. Good soldiers, all of them. Not a shred of remorse of pity in them. Just what Deathfang always wanted.

But back to the matter at hand. He was gleefully hacking at each and every human within arms reach (on foot for a change) that wore not the colours of the lord of hell, when he spotted a human boy.

Not that remarkable in and off itself. But what interested, and angered, the gnoll was that the boy was not paying any sort of attention to either him OR his soldiers. Just looking around frantically at nothing. _'Well, time to see how far I can catapult a human boy by ramming into him.'_ Grinning at the thought Deathfang took of at a dead sprint, intent on pulverizing the boy between himself and the wall behind him. Just as he rammed into the boy a portal opened up behind the boy, swallowing them both up.

Which gets us back to the present. A gnoll floating through space (and potentially time), drenched in blood and a dead human next to him. Pitiful creature died upon impact, his blue eyes now lifeless and black hair swaying idly in the nothingness surrounding them.

Not that the gnoll cares in the slightest as he is munching on one of the boys arms he had idly chopped off, what he does care about is the figurative light at the end of the tunnel. Which is rapidly approaching, and he should reach it in less than a minute. Oh how he loves his vampiric companion for managing to preserve his ability to enjoy eating after becoming a graveknight

On the other end of the portal the people watching think that the Vallière girl had once more failed her spell. A valid point, considering the large explosion she had caused. Out of the audience only three people actually feel bad for the girl as they know she will be expelled if she cant summon a familiar.

Kirche while she teases Louise does not mean any ill by it. Just wanting to provide the girl herself as an outlet for the frustration.

Tabitha understands that Louise does indeed have magic, how else would she be able to cause explosions, but simply has no control over it for some reason.

Jean Colbert pities the daughter of his friend, he really wishes for her to be able to keep attending school. But even though she is the top of her year in theory she has yet to successfully cast a single spell.

Just as he is about to declare her spell a failure he smells it, blood, death and gore… Lots of it. Whatever the girl had summoned is BAD news. And judging by the way the familiars are shifting in an agitated manner (including even the blue dragon) it is REALLY BAD news. As such he had rather swiftly taken out his staff in preparation of defending his students. And considering Young Tabitha and Kirche are doing the same as him they must have realized something is wrong as well.

When the dust had shifted they were treated to a most horrifying sight. Some manner of creature resembling some form of canine beast stands there at almost seven feet in height, clad in blood red and black armour, holding a intricate bastard sword in one hand and the severed arm of a human in the other. The latter of which it was currently eating. The arm obviously belonged to the dead teenager at the beasts feet.

Then professor Colbert realizes something frightening, the beast is not actually a beast. It carries the spark of intelligence within its eyes, studying them as much as they him. Probably thinking of how to best escape or mutilate them he realizes. Before he can cast any spell however young Louise shakily approaches the thing, quite foolishly in his opinion but she must be desperate for any kind of success he fears.

It also does not go unnoticed by the three people, who had originally drawn their foci, how the things eyes instantly focus on her yet never entirely left those who had drawn on him. _'an experienced combatant then.'_ Colbert and Tabitha realize.

Louise not caring in the slightest about what she summoned, only that she summoned it, walks up to this unsightly beast. She almost looses control of her stomach when she sees the body at its feet but powers on through in a display of impressive bravery (read: Foolishness).

As she reaches the brute (just out of arms reach) she starts yelling and gesturing at it (much to the dismay of many in the audience, and annoyance of Deathfang). The creature however does kneel down after a few moments.

Taking it a sign of submission Louise further approaches to complete the binding. But to Colbert and Tabitha this is anything but a sign of submission. It is a predator luring its prey in with a false sense of security. As soon as the girl steps into reach of the behemoth it grabs her by the throat, her flesh rotting almost instantly from the point where it grabbed her onward.

It then tosses the poor girl, who is at this point already dead, into the mass of students. And to make matters worse the desecrated corpse explodes in a shower of blood and gore (and acid) upon contact with one of her class mates. Killing almost another dozen young people.

Colbert enraged at the sudden death of so many, especially children and his students, reverts back to his former self, and engulfs the beast in a massive torrent of flames, aided by the Von Zerbst.

Deathfang in the meantime is amused, very much so. These people are fools, utter and complete fools. Do they not know the symbol of Asmodeus when they see it, when it is so proudly displayed on his chest and cloak. BAH. Who is he to care for ignorant idiots, it just makes it easier to kill them in the end.

As he is engulfed in a massive inferno, which does exactly zero harm to him due to his graveknight nature that would make the spell useless even if it could get through his spell resistance, he laughs quietly to himself at how he kept his promise to kill whoever summoned him in a gruesome fashion. For what is more gruesome (in the short term) than a **'Bloatbomb'** spell. The silly girl wanted to bind him as a mere familiar, HAH!

Shaking his head in amusement he lets out a feral roar, charging through the flames in the direction of where the fire is coming from. At the end of the inferno he rams his blade through the abdomen of an elderly human, and with a swift motion nearly cuts the man in half. The wound instantly cauterized by the immense heat produced by a graveknight's hatred being channelled through his blade.

Turning to the now fleeing children (which only includes most but not all to his immense surprise) he grins in bloodlust as he decides to return the favour of what had been done to him.

Holding out his blade, pointing towards the soon to be dead mortals, a small bead of blood red fire forms on the tip of his sword but it does not stay that way. Instead it becomes a massive wave of fire instantly incinerating everything and everyone thirty feet in front of him. Yet some children still manage to escape as they were just barely out of range of the deadly embrace of the flames. But unlike him who cares not for the rage of an inferno, the students that had been engulfed in his flames are naught but charred husks on the ground now.

Deciding that hunting them down, for the moment, is not an option he turns back to those who were not too cowardly to face him (or cowardly enough to be rooted in place, as was the case with a few). What greets him however is a hail of icicles, fireballs, a dozen charging bronze figurines and a juvenile blue dragon all coming at him. Ignoring the hail- and firestorm completely, as no harm can come to him from them, he decides to thin the ranks first as it were. Unleashing yet another wave of fire he melts all but two of the figurines, yet the children are out of range and the dragon (being a smart and rather fast beast) managed to avoid the incoming blaze.

Not that Deathfang cares in the slightest. Now hefting Helbrand in both hands he indulges the sentient blade and its murderous lust for slaughter of all that do not follow Asmodeus and goes right at the dragon.

Spells from the teens would splash harmlessly against his form, thrown boulders would barely phase him, and the dragon could almost not even penetrate his armour, much less properly wound him and the bronze weapons of the 'golems' would shatter upon contact with him.

As such the outcome of this fight was inevitable. With a mighty smite (after confirming that the blue dragon is somehow indeed good) he lops the beasts head clean off. Changing targets to the now fleeing children. They have apparently realized that fighting him is futile (and rightly so) and decided that discretion is the better part of valour as they turned tail. With the exception of one or two weak willed ones who are still standing there in a catatonic state.

 _'Oh well.'_ He dismissively thinks as he lops their heads off before summoning a **'Phantom Steed'** to run down anything that crosses his path _'How many of them can I make die before someone back home misses me enough to come and get me I wonder.'_

… it would be almost a week and MANY dead later before he was found by a familiar Vampiress to be brought back to their home plane, so he can continue killing things in a place that actually matters to them. _'Ah hells, but at the very least I found a place to make vacations in. Next time I will come here on my nightmare tough, so I don't rely on someone to retrieve me.'_

And so was created the legend of a beast summoned from another world. A beast more feared than any elf ever could be. A beast that would haunt the dreams of many people for many years to come. A beast that would occasionally show up out of nowhere, riding a hellish steed slaughtering anything that it comes across for a full day before vanishing once more.

It would be known for its fearsome appearance and now legendary arms.

It would be feared for its unrelenting brutality, and lack of mercy towards anything.

It would be dreaded for its ability to shrug of even the most mortal wounds, its tirelessness, and its almost complete immunity to magic.

Parents would tell their children bed time stories to behave or that it would come in the dead of night to take them away.

Following all these legends would be a lesser known legend, of a woman, of unnatural beauty who fears not this beast, a woman who stopped its first rampage after a full week of bloodshed by taking it away with her to whatever dread place they had sprung from. And from this second legend springs the name for this beast, shared by the few men and women who were close enough to both survive the pair yet still hear and/or see them. The name by which the woman called the beast. The only name it is known by.

A name which mere mention sends a shiver of fear down the spines of any man or woman…

 **Deathfang.**

* * *

AN: I do realize progress is rather slow, and this chapter is somewhat slow but I hope once we get to the more interesting part of the plot things will once more kick off.

Also, I apologize if this chapter doesn't fell all that natural, or if the conversation between Sylphid and Raskreia, and also Tabitha feels forced. But I rewrote their conversation four times, and I just couldn't get it to feel more natural than it is now, so I kinda just gave up and decided. Meh, close enough.

But as a way to compensate this, I wrote that Omake. Deathfang is not one of my PC's, it is a PC of a another during our Way of the Wicked campaign. Out of that group he would make for the best Omake character. My character (the Vampire) would result in a subjugation of the lands via undead and mind control. The rogue would simply leave for home, after stealing everything of value that is not nailed down, via plane shift scroll (he is a Rogue-Sorcerer-Arcane trickster) and the cleric, I have no bloody idea what he would do. Convert people to Asmodeus I suppose.

Meanwhile Deathfang… well this is the result. He is a powerhouse, a level 20 Gnoll (Graveknight) Anti-Paladin. When I say that him and my character couldn't kill one another I meant that as in; My character has no means to properly harm Deathfang, and Deathfang has no proper way to counter my magic defences. Graveknights are basically the martial form of liches. They kick so much ass. Spell resistance to make anything less than a red wyrm blush, bonus damage on melee hits, immunities out of their ass and a free resurrection as long as no-one throws their armour into a mount doom.

Hope you like the chapter and the (I believe even longer than last time) omake which might as well be a One-shot.

Aaand I'm out.


	12. Chapter 12

"Speech: Halkeginian"

 _'Thoughts/telepathy'_

 **'Spells and the like'**

 _"Speech: Common/Dwarven"_

 _ **"Speech: Draconic"**_

* * *

It is the day of the familiar exhibit, and all students participating are there to show just why they and their familiar are the best. Especially since the princess of their country is there to watch.

But one can see a nervous wreck of a girl pacing behind the stands waiting anxiously for her familiar to show up.

Louise does not know weather or not Raskreia will be on time, in fact she had only seen the woman yesterday morning for a brief moment, from a distance one might add, as she retrieved her tiger into one of those portal thingies she is so fond of. Since then she had seen neither head nor tail of her.

This fact is especially infuriating since the princess deigned to visit her last night to meet with her and to see what kind of familiar she had summoned, and the fact that she could not show her dear old friend her single accomplishment was not something she liked all that much.

Now it is almost their turn and Raskreia still had not shown up, in fact Louise already asked to be placed last in order. And just as she was about to abandon hope of the woman ever showing up in the first place yet another tear in reality opens up and out steps the subject of her thoughts. Accompanied by her tiger, of course, and an unfamiliar man.

"Hey Louise, hope we are not late. Kind of forgot the time there." If she wasn't so awfully glad the woman had made it in the first place she would have berated her, as it was she was beyond caring.

"You are just on time, and who is that man?" the man to Louise looks rather well taken care of, she might even go as far as to assume him to be a noble.

"Why, how rude of me. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Zarhon Witlash, daring adventurer, loremaster, friend to all women, and the best performer of arts you will ever meet. And what is the name of the delicate flower I am currently gazing at?" _'Well he certainly knows how to introduce himself'_ Thought Louise at the rather unusual introduction.

"My name is Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière, a pleasure to meet you good sir. Not that it is a problem, but why are you here?" Raskreia at that snaps her fingers and has the sort of look you get when you realize you have forgotten something.

"Ah well, he is here to help me with my performance. He will be playing the violin as I sing. I hope that is not outside the boundaries of the rules." That is indeed a good point, one that should have been considered earlier, luckily Louise knows for a fact that it is not against the rules, it just might deduct from the rating if the familiar itself (or in this case herself) is not the one doing the actual performing.

"No it is not against the rules, just make sure you don't get overshadowed by him and it should be fine." This statement makes the duo about to perform grin at one another.

"Great, lets get on stage then come on Rask, don't want our audience to keep waiting." As the three of them exit after being called up, bard and sorcerer in the back and mage up front, they can see that many of the people present seem to be confused as to why three people are exiting instead of just a student.

Louise quickly bows towards the audience, and bows once more a bit more deeply towards the princess, "Greetings to everyone, this is my familiar, Raskreia," there were a number of confused mutterings at the fact that there is a human familiar that had been summoned but no one really said anything. "and today she will sing for us, with Zarhon Witlash adding his violin."

Louise quickly steps aside leaving the stage for the two adventurers. Both stand still for a few seconds mentally preparing themselves when Zarhon begins the performance by stringing the first note quickly followed by Raskreia starting to sing.

 **[Song: Lilium, Elfen Lied (violin cover + lyrics), I am not going to write down the song text** **]**

Almost instantly the entirety of the audience is captivated by the song of almost otherworldly quality, despite none of them understanding what is actually being said. The singing and the violin compliment one another to near perfection.

Louise is quite surprised not having expected the performance being anything noteworthy having been to quite a few operas, being a noble. But these two could compete with any of the famous performers of the land.

The princess, Henrietta, is proud of her friend of having summoned such a talented, if unusual, familiar.

Kirche for her part is currently enjoying the eye candy that both performers represent while immersing herself in the music.

Tabitha and Siesta are quietly sitting and listening in rapt attention to every bit of the song, as Sylphid is excitedly pacing behind the stands.

The performance goes on for a few minutes and by the end of it many, including Raskreia herself, have spilled tears from the emotions being put into it. Just as the song reaches its climax however it is interrupted by a loud booming noise throwing everyone into a state of confusion.

Before anyone can identify the source of the noise it repeats itself two more times. By then a guard rushes into view shouting frantically "A giant golem is trying to break into the tower!" which sends the audience into a state of panic, with the exception of a number of people. The princess being evacuated by her guard.

Most notable Tabitha instantly mounted Sylphid and flew off, and the royal guard rushes to get the princess to safety.

Raskreia and Zarhon look at one another both letting out a sigh of frustration at the same time _"I hate when I cant finish a song."_ Zarhon states with Raskreia nodding in agreement. _"are we going to help?"_

 _"Well… considering that my summoner has already rushed of and she can hardly use any magic… yes id like to not have a kid die if I can help it."_

 _"Eh, fair enough. YO FELNIIR! GET OVER HERE!"_ to his mild surprise the cat nudges him in the back already right next to them.

 _"You have become even less perceptive, bard."_ One could hear the smugness dripping out of her voice at Zarhon's startled expression.

 _"Right then, lets do strategy: Thorgal special."_ He said and all three grin at one another, followed by a number of chants shared by bard and sorceress focused on the tigress. **'Haste' 'Displacement' 'Blood money: Legendary proportions' 'Heroism: Greater'**

Before Zarhon can throw on more spells on the suitably intimidating tiger he is stopped by Raskreia _"That should do it for, cant do a full buff routine without Kwalin anyways."_

Both bard and sorceress jump on to of the now massive feline which then darts off into the direction of the commotion.

Once they reach the intended area they are treated to a somewhat interesting view.

A giant mass of stone is currently trying to break into the academy tower with a cloaked figure standing on top of the thing. A, relatively, small blue dragon is flying around it as both its riders are flinging fire and ice at the golem. A few guards are standing back uncertain as to what to do exactly. And lastly a young pink haired mage is standing not ten meters away from the thing trying to cast spells at it.

Trying being the key word for the most part. Oh she got a magic reaction alright. Just not in the way that she wanted. Instead of a fireball hitting the golem as she wanted, she produced an explosion that hit the side of the tower, cracking it.

This goes not unnoticed by the people from Golarion, Tabitha nor the thief.

On orders of its master the golem once more raises its arm to punch the wall where there is now a quite visible crack, and the wall bursts open, the thief instantly dashing along the golem's still extended arm into the vault beyond.

Meanwhile outside Raskreia and Zarhon have now dismounted and are observing the happenings in the back as Felniir rushes the golem over thrice her size in the back.

Mid charge chanting a quick **'Instant Enemy'** focused on constructs she pounces on the thing, only barely making it take a slight step back as the other observers pause for a moment of surprise at seeing a three meter tall tiger pounce a ten meter tall stone construct, and actually leave behind sizable gashes in the stone where her claws and teeth struck AND make it take a step back.

The golem tries to dislodge the thing firmly holding on to its back but manages not to reach between where its shoulder blades would be if it had them leaving Felniir to viciously tear into its back further. Going so far as to make parts of its right arm fall off.

But before she can do any more serious damage she is interrupted by taking a lucky hit from a sizable boulder to the chest flinging her of the golem, which has now healed by the renewed attentions of its creator.

Felniir now dislodged of her would be pray but hardly hurt makes for another attempt against the enemy, tough now intent on mauling the puppeteer rather than the puppet. Yet before she can do so, or anyone truly threaten the person, they meld into their golem vanishing from sight. At the same time the golem stops repairing from any damage caused to it by the continuous streams of spells coming from Tabitha, Kirche and the newly joined headmaster and Colbert.

Osmond looks quite panicked, understandable really since his school has just been attacked and probably robbed.

As one both staff members fly up through the breach followed by Tabitha and Kirche jumping in off of Sylphid.

Louise looks about ready to cast a spell or go the long way around to reach where the headmaster is but gets interrupted by Raskreia grabbing her and pulling her atop Felniir.

In an impressive display of climbing skill the feline works her way up into the tower up the wall, with two riders holding on to her fur and in the case of Louise being suspended between Zarhon and Raskreia both of whom are holding on one handed.

As they reach the top the quartet catch the tail end of a conversation being shared between those already there finished by Osmond

"- of destruction was stolen."

 _"Ohh I smell a quest here"_ Zarhon whispers tohis two friends "The what, -of destruction was stolen?"

But at this point Raskreia was no longer truly paying attention to the conversation, choosing instead to briefly activate her **'Arcane sight'** she had long ago made permanent. It's a neat spell really, being basically a beefed up detect magic with the added bonus of awe-inspiring glowing eyes when in use, just one downside she actually SEES magical auras rather than feel them like with detect magic, with varying brightness depending on the power of an aura, which can be rather detrimental if she does not expect something being brighter than she thinks it should be. It is rather like going from a cave into bright sunlight.

Well, as she activates the sight, she almost went blind.

For one the entire room was magical, protected by layers upon layers of protective spells. It would take some serious force to break through them, which was exactly what happened. If her eyes are right, which they should be, these protections only protect against physical and elemental damage. Yet it was broken by what she is assuming to be a force effect, I.E Louise's explosion, weakening it to the breaking point and the golem finishing it off with brute strength.

But that is not what caught (and burned her eye) her eyes. No, no that was just some neat little tidbit of information, nor was it the plethora of very minor magical items (as in so minor they barely register as magical at all) no they are just food for thought at best.

No it is the absolutely blinding auras of two items in this room there is only one kind of item that has that sort of powerful aura.

Artifacts.

She knows a bit about them, their group have even acquired three items that qualify as such. She has a very special book, Thorgal has his cloak, and Kwalin his shield. Zarhon at one point had the chance to gain a deck of many things but said and one quotes "With my luck in gambling I might as well just throw myself of a cliff if I take this."

Artifacts are rare, it would be stupid if they were not. In fact to gain theirs they went through a dungeon that had almost killed them several times, skipping a few details, and at the end once they exited the blasted place it chucked them four months into the future making their vigilante jobs of saving the country from the power hungry necromancer Tom so much harder.

And here they are, three such items… IN ONE PLACE!

Admittedly she only recognized one of them, but that is only because she had already seen one other of the same kind. The other three are an unknown to her.

One, the one she recognizes is a staff, simple make really. Wooden and shod in iron, unremarkable at first glance, well other than the runes inscribed into it. To her it might just be the most beautiful thing she had seen in ages.

Next was a rather large Cauldron, made of what seems to be pure iron. It is four feet in diameter and could easily fit a person honestly if she didn't see its aura she wouldn't think it magical. But the strong necromantic aura coming from it is rather concerning.

And lastly, a small crystalline hourglass, perfect size to fit in a humans hand. The sand within it is flowing endlessly… upwards. Yet to her eyes it is SO much more, to her it looks as though the small thing has an entire lay-line streaming through it, only scaled down. She does not know what it does but damn if she isn't going to find out.

 _'Now the only question is as to how to get them, with a bit of luck these people don't realize what they have got on their hands here.'_

"Raskreia! Have you been listening at all?" the voice of Louise stops her before she starts actually drooling in anticipation.

"Er, kinda. Something about the thief having to be caught and you volunteering to go find them, also a question as to why Felniir is suddenly so large. The answer to the latter is magic." She did in fact hear a bit of what was said but simply chose to pay attention to something more interesting at the time.

"Right, well, you are coming with us. As my familiar it is your duty to do so after all." Giving her summoner a grunt of acceptance she mentally repays the earlier conversation.

Osmond then speaks up once more now that everyone is paying attention once more. "Perhaps we should adjourn this to my office then, and give me some time to call the other staff members."

* * *

Osmond's office

* * *

Once everyone is situated in the headmasters office he sends out a couple of servants to collect the rest of the staff, for whom they are waiting right now.

Turning towards Osmond Raskreia addresses something that she had caught in the earlier conversation." What did you say earlier about having to move the things in here."

He regards her for a moment, most likely weighing her intentions, before repeating himself "Well, since this place is no longer secure for the time being we will have to move everything to a more secure location. Sadly this will pose a bit of a problem as there is no place large enough to hold them all in this country available. The royal treasury would fit but it is already almost full."

Mentally giving a cheer she makes a show of contemplation "Well, how long would it take for the place to be fixed?"

He now himself needs to think on this "It would take about a month, maybe two, to fix the damage and restore the structure to its previous state. During which the contents would be unsecured."

"What if I told you that I could securely store everything here for you for any amount of time you needed to restore the vault?" She had trouble not appearing giddy at her plan. Zarhon and Felniir, who was now once more normal sized, were giving her curious looks as to where she was going with this as they know very well she rarely does anything for entirely free, nor would she actually steal anything from these people.

The narrowed eyes of Osmond and Colbert told her that they were also trying to figure this out, and Osmond decided to answer her question with a question of his own "I would ask: what is in it for you?"

"Lets say I was interested in buying two, no make that three, items out of this place and would want you consider selling them to me at an acceptable price in exchange for safekeeping everything in here for the duration of the repairs." Judging by the looks she was getting by everyone present they did not expect that reasoning.

"And what would prevent you from taking all of these items for yourself once you have them in your so called safe place?" This was Colbert, and if Raskreia was honest he had a point, then again if she wanted to steal anything from here this place was poorly equipped for keeping her from it, now more than ever.

"Let me put it this way, I have shown my ability to teleport quite often now I believe. This place has no defense against such, if I wanted to steal anything from here I would have done so long ago with you being non the wiser. Why then should I now steal it so blatantly?" no need to mention for now that blind teleportation is rather dangerous and she might have seriously injured herself by trying to do so. But it did seem to placate the man.

"I-I see. And where would you keep these things safe then?" Both the professor and the Headmaster are now beginning to consider her offer. It was potentially a good offer after all, it would not only save them money for transportation of the items but also their storage AND they could make money as well. Money they could put to repairing the vault.

"Why in my home of course, and don't give me those looks, its quite safe."

Osmond gives her a look that says he does not quite believe her. "And pray tell how it is so safe as you claim, and how we would get all these items there in the first place?"

"Because you need me to tell or show you where it is to be able to enter it in the first place, And one can only enter using portals, which is also the method with which I am going to transport everything over."

Osmond seems to be mulling it over and looks back at Raskreia "And what items would you be so interested in buying?"

She quickly casts a Silent image portraying the items in question and judging by the widening of Zarhon's eyes, noticed by only her and Tabitha, he has recognized at least one of the items as well. Of course he has he has encountered this kind of staff too.

"Why are you so interested in these three items in particular, they are nothing special, excepting the cauldron, it being back from the brimiric era. The staff is but a simple, if curios focus, and the hourglass is but a bauble." It took all of her mental effort to not cheer at the fact that they indeed did not know what they had on their hands here. And judging by the bard starting to hum a bardic performance to help her he must be quite excited about the prospect as well.

"Ah well, they are items from my world, or at least I am almost certain they are, as I have seen items almost identical to them before." _'Technically not a lie, I have indeed seen a staff like that before, as well as cauldrons and hourglasses albeit ordinary ones'_ "And I would like to acquire them to see how they ended up here."

Osmond and Colbert both give her a long stare before looking at one another and simultaneously letting out a sigh. "Very well, I will sell these to you, all three of them, for… lets say five thousand gold" The amount is making the present students choke a bit as that is a really rather large amount of money to them, but Raskreia is only grinning internally further. "And if you can retrieve the staff of destruction I will even lower it down to four thousand."

 _'FOUR THOUSAND!? For three artifacts HAH! Talk about a bargain!'_

But Osmond was not done yet. "But under one condition." _'Apsu damn it, knew it was too good to be true.'_ Thought Raskreia

"Once they are yours I want you to tell me the real reason you are so interested in these items, I might be old but I am not stupid. I saw how those items drew your attention as soon as you entered the vault , there is more to them than we know, but you do. Don't worry, a deal is a deal and I wont change it. Consider it satisfying an old mans curiosity if you will." Now Raskreia cant help it she bursts out laughing.

"Oh by Torag. Old man, you just made my list of top five favorite people I have met in this place. Deal! I will tell you everything about these things you want to know that I can answer." Colbert seems to want to protest this deal but knows a futile effort when he sees it so he does not even bother.

Osmond simply smiles at the woman, for once not being a pervert about it, and nods. She had a certain charm to her that simply made him like her, she reminded him a bit of Karen in her youth actually. "Very well, but I believe you have a Thief to find and catch."

At this moment Osmond's secretary, as well as the rest of the staff, burst into the office. Well, burst is a bit generous a word to them slowly showing the doors slowly open.

The secretary, miss Longueville walks up to the Headmaster after giving the tigress a calculating glance "Headmaster, I have news of the Thief being spotted in a nearby cottage. We should dispatch someone to retrieve the stolen items and apprehend the thief post haste.

Raskreia and Zarhon share a singular thought _'No way in the hells did a report like that come in this quickly. It has been what? An hour?'_

Osmond's eyes twinkle in amusement "Well, I am sure my very qualified staff is willing to join these three fine students, who have already volunteered to help, on such a trip."

Colbert is visibly about to say something but is stopped by a pointed look from the headmaster. The other teachers look anywhere but the old man stating, frankly quite ridiculous, reasons as to why they cannot undertake such a task.

Zarhon can help but whisper to Felniir _"Do me a favor and bite me in the ass if I turn out like that once I become a noble"_ earning himself a chuckle and an affirmative nod from the tiger. _'Just don't do it while you are as big as you are now please, I do still want to KEEP said ass."_ This earned him a few playful snaps by her amidst her still chuckling, and rather horrified looks from the local nobles.

The headmaster looks not very amused at the cowardice of his staff but then turns surprised eyes at Longueville as she steps up "I shall go whit the kids, they will need someone to lead them to the cottage after all."

And once more Raskreia and Zarhon share one thought. _'She is the Thief.'_

"Wonderful!" Osmond exclaimed "You should all head out as soon as possible."

* * *

On the road

* * *

We currently see six individuals sitting inside a cart, with a tiger (now again a more normal size) trotting beside it. Longueville is driving with Zarhon, currently playing an idle tune on his fiddle, sitting beside her the rest are in the back of the carriage engaging in idle chatter.

Kirche slides over to Raskreia, almost snuggling into her side, something the latter is not all that opposed to which only irritates a watching pinkette further.

"So darling, I got good news. My family is willing to sell, and I am to negotiate a price. Isn't that great?!" Kirche punctuates her statement by further pressing herself into Raskreia's side, who now slides a bit away much to the formers disappointment, which vanishes at the wink she receives from Raskreia.

"That is great, lets negotiate first ting in the morning. And-" She is about to say something else but gets interrupted by Louise.

"What are you two talking about? What negotiations? What could possibly have to do with a Zerbst?" Louise seems close to erupting so Raskreia takes it slowly, not wanting to have a verbal fight right now.

"Remember the people I hired off of Mott? Well I needed somewhere to employ them, so I am buying a plot of land from the Zerbst family where is will build a trading post to employ those people." While it didn't quite calm her down this did not in fact make Louise More angry.

"And why did you ask her and not me? I am your mas-Summoner!" ' _Ah there lies the clutch, Louise's low self esteem'_ thought Raskreia.

"Well, would you or your family have agreed?" This statement seemed to take out all the wind out of the girls sails as she realizes that, no, her family would most likely not agree.

Raskreia once more turns towards the now rather bemused Kirche. "As I was about to say. I prefer to go out on at least one date before cuddling." It was rather amusing to watch the reactions of the different people.

Tabitha merely raised an eyebrow before going back to reading.

Longueville is seemingly currently not paying attention.

Felniir was out of sight for her.

Zarhon gave her a look that seemed to say "Why do you always go after the good ones?"

Louise looked scandalized at the open talk but not really getting the true meaning either.

And lastly, and most amusingly, Kirche both looked as if her birthday had come early this year, and that she couldn't believe her idle advances would actually work. Soon a smirk was on her face once more thinking that Raskreia was merely teasing. "Why Raskreia! Was that an invitation, I would love to go on a date with you." Much to Kirche's shock however she Rask does not in fact look like she had been teasing.

Louise meanwhile had almost gone catatonic in shock and anger.

Raskreia gives Kirche a sly look, "it most certainly was. Next opportunity that arrives, what do you say?"

To Tabitha's shock Kirche actually blushes as she replies "I-I think we could do that."

"If you kids are done flirting back there, we are about to reach the cottage" The voice of Longueville cut through their thoughts like a hot knife through butter, and both Raskreia's and Zarhon's demeanor changes drastically, from carefree to serious in seconds. Which is quite startling to those who had not yet seen either of them like this.

Longueville has to actually swallow down some anxiety before she is able to speak once more.

"How about you six-" at the growl of Felniir she quickly corrects herself "-I mean seven, go on down this path, the cottage is right down that bend inside the forest. I will keep lookout from afar for any danger."

The gathered people don't protest and head on down the path towards the cottage.

Raskreia sidles up to Tabitha who is currently taking up the rear, whom she realizes is the most level headed of the locals, and whispers to her "Zarhon and I think the secretary is the Thief, keep your guard up." After gaining a confirming nod she once again walks forward toward the front of their group next to Felniir and in front of Zarhon. _'Seems like I did not misjudge her, she is really good at keeping her calm in these kinds of situations.'_

As she passes the bard he whispers to her _"Target in sight?"_

 _"No. She couldn't see us from this angle, no matter where, all angles within sixty feet of us are covered."_ was her reply.

 _"Good. Send Felniir to watch her, I will make an illusion of her to not arouse suspicion."_

 _"Nice idea. Alright you ready buddy?"_ She gets only an inpatient huff as response which she takes as a yes before casting **'Invisibility'** as Zarhon simultaneously casts **'Major image'** which takes the form of Felniir where the cat was prior to her becoming invisible. The result being the three natives and any possible onlookers seeing the bard and sorceress presumably cast some sort of spell but nothing happening.

"What did you just cast?" This was Louise's inquisitive voice speaking.

Zarhon being the more adept liar of the two was the one to speak. "Oh, those were just spells to tell us if there was anyone around, which there isn't."

The three natives nod, relaxing slightly at the knowledge of there being no one but them around.

A short while later they come upon the sight of a rather decrepit looking cabin. Nothing

would indicate anyone to be living within it at all, nor could Raskreia sense anyone nearby. Activating her arcanesight once more to scan the area in front of them she cant see any magical auras either, not even from this supposed staff of destruction.

Carefully walking up to the door Zarhon opens it up and Raskreia is the first to enter, not seeing, hearing or sensing anyone or anything inside of significant note she motions for the rest to come in with them.

Tabitha seems to have certain experience with this kind of deal and makes nary a sound, Kirche for some reason or another is adept at sneaking as well. Louise however would not know the principle of stealth if it hit her in the face, in fact the is actually tiptoeing.

Louise is also the first to break her "Stealth" by speaking up "There is nobody here" just to be shushed by everyone present.

"After a few seconds of listening to any sort of response the pink haired girls voice might have garnered they come to the conclusion that the shack is deserted in its entirety.

Kirche for her part tries to stray away from the incredibly dirty furniture while she searches for anything.

Tabitha is standing still in the entrance scanning the area.

Louise is walking around frantically searching everything while not touching anything.

And the Felniir illusion walks beneath the table not disturbing the table cloth in the process, if one were to watch out for something like that, where it vanishes into thin air.

Zarhon and Raskreia however merely look at the dust covering the ground, and thanks to their perfect darkvision can see, even though it had just been disturbed by them, a rather clear track of footprints leading to one end of the single room shack where there lies a single, green, container.

Both of them walk up to the thing confidently and once both have confirmed that it is indeed trap free, both magical or not, Zarhon picks it up and deposits it on the table.

The three locals noticing this walk up to them.

Louise is the first to talk "Hey! You found it! Let us get out of here."

Zarhon looks at the girl before opening the case "First we should confirm that this is not a decoy." Once the container opens all five of them look inside in wonder as to what the fabled staff of destruction might look like.

What they see is quite unimpressive, being a single green metal tube.

"This is it, how boring" Grumbles Kirche.

"Yeah. Its not even magical." Says Raskreia as her eyes stop glowing once more after deactivating her arcane sight.

Zarhon however is closely inspecting the item, turning it over and looking at it from all angles.

"I wouldn't be to certain about this thing being, in any way shape of form, boring. Look here it says 'M-72 Launcher, Rocket'. Now I am no expert, but the word launcher would imply that it launches some form of projectile, an I have heard of something called rockets before. Actually Raskreia I'm sure you have too." The bard says showing the words to his friend.

"Rocket… rocket… OH! Seebo! Kwalin's explosives expert, didn't he go on and on about something like this? Self propelled projectiles, was it? He found an example on a planar market once but could afford it and has been trying to make something like it ever since." The locals are looking at the pair in confusion as to their line of thinking.

"So you are saying this is a weapon, and not a staff?" Says Kirche looking at the "Staff" in interest "how does it work."

Zarhon looks it over a few more times, unfolding it in the process "Hmm, I would say that this thing here is used to aim, and this is where the projectile comes out of… yep see this thing in here, that is the projectile." Now he looks at it a bit more trying to figure out why it has two openings and how to trigger it, finding it rather quickly "Ah, is see! The back opening is to let excess energy escape so as to not, presumably, rip of your arms from the blast, and this here is the trigger. And judging by the design it can only be fired once. At least I cant figure out how it would be reloaded."

"So its not a staff at all?" This was Louise, trying to wrap her head around the fact that they came all this way for some weird non-magical weapon.

"Nope, or at least, hey Raskreia. Do you think you could use this as a spell focus?"

The woman in question looks the weapon over, careful to stray far away from the trigger mechanism and even tries to channel a cantrip through it, which fails. What many don't realize is that mages of Golarion DO in fact need something to focus their magic. Its just that most go straight to using their hands to do so, as once they can use their hands, which are frankly quite hard learn how to use as a focus, one can use anything else as well. Hell there is some who can focus their magic with their mind alone, but that is a whole different can of worms.

"No can do, this thing is about as magically conductive as some random stick on the ground, cant even do a cantrip through it."

"Well, not a staff then. There you have it. Lets go back and get this business behind us." Just as he says that they all hear a loud roar followed by a scream.

Outside the follow the sounds of struggling and growling, finding behind a pair of bushes Felniir on top of Longueville, the former holding the latter's throat in her maw and holding both her arms beneath her paws.

Kirche and Louise look rather confused at this but Tabitha understands what must have probably happened, just not how.

The captured woman meanwhile struggling, fruitlessly, against the hold the tiger has on her "What is the meaning of this, tell your beast to let me go. Fouquet might escape!" to which Felniir merely growls making her shut up once more.

Raskreia walks up to the downed woman removing her wand once there. **"You can let her go now Felniir"** Which she does with the woman sitting up.

"See, I had a feeling you were no good, but I didn't want to believe it. Alas, caution is the secret to survival in our line of work, so I had Felniir here watch out for you trying anything suspicious, which you must have done."

"I don't know what you are talking about, I was just watching out for Fouquet when your cat here assaulted me out of nowhere." Both Zarhon and Rask knew it to be a lie, Felniir knew what she was doing and had good reason to do what she is currently doing, Louise however had another question

"Hang on. Wasn't Felniir with us the entire time?" to which the other two girls nod.

"That was an illusion." Was the nonchalant reply of Zarhon, "now why don't you tell us-" he doesn't get to finish his sentence as the same golem as before crashes out of the ground behind Fouquet, it does not get far however as it is hit by a thin green ray, being turned in its entirety to ash, curtsey of a **'Disintegrate'** cast by Raskreia.

After a short pause Zarhon continues as if nothing happened "Why don't you tell us why you were stealing this particular item? You are a well know thief around here, being Fouquet, and there is easier targets around that are worth more money."

A now visibly pale Fouquet looks at the pile of ashes that used to be her golem, then at her still outstretched wand in the hands of Raskreia. And she hears Raskreia distinctly mutter "Still prefer my hands."

"I-I-I'm just looking for a c-challenge is all." The poor woman would have fallen to her knees had she not been sitting already.

Raskreia not believing a word gets really up close to the woman and, unseen to the students behind her, partially dispels her illusion regaining her fangs and slit pupils. Staring right into Fouquet's eyes, unblinking. The poor woman is just getting more frantic but cannot back up because Felniir has positioned herself right behind her.

Raskreia shows of her fangs by grinning widely, even going as far as activating her arcane sight making her eyes glow an ethereal blue, only thing still visible her reptilian slits. "I don't think I believe you." Saying this in a overly sweet sing-song voice makes it even worse for the now terrified woman beneath her. "You know, the spell I just cast earlier works on humans too. Thought id let you know."

That did it for Fouquet, she did not want to be turned into ash, no sir thank you. "RECONQUISTA!" She shouts out "They hired me, please don't kill me." Now deactivating her Arcane sight and removing her draconic features once more Raskreia straightens herself and gives the woman a bit of breathing room which she happily accepts.

"See, that wasn't so hard was it?" She then turns towards Zarhon "Do you know them?" Knowing the bard he hears all kinds of things in the most ridiculous timeframes.

"I do indeed, I heard they are a revolutionary force up in the north in a country known as Albion, they want to overthrow the nobility or something. As usual they are trying to do so by starting a war, or at least it is building up to be one."

Rask chuckles at the prospect "And let me guess it is a poorly thought out ideology, and even if they succeed they are going to go bankrupt and fall into anarchy soon after the war is over and the old system is overthrown."

"Yeah pretty much." Now he too cant help but chuckle lightly.

"WHAT! There is someone in Albion trying to topple the nobility? We need to warn them." Louise all but shouts, entirely unnecessary considering no one is more than two meters away.

The bard, rubbing his ears chooses to be the one to try and calm the excitable girl down "Calm down, if I heard about it, anyone of import already knows about it and are, if they are not completely inept, taking measures to prevent a total breakdown. We cant do much at the time."

He then turns towards their captive once more "Listen, lady, I have a proposition for you. You work for us."

"You cant be serious!" Kirche exclaims. "She is a criminal for Brimir's sake!"

Raskreia however knows where her friend is trying to go with this "You are intending to use a Mark of Justice, aren't you?"

Fouquet looks about as lost as the other natives are feeling "Mark of what now, what are you people talking about? Why do you think I would work for you?"

Zarhon does not look at all concerned "Oh, many reasons. A secure work position, steady income, the fact that you wont be thrown into jail or turned to ash, just to name a few reasons. And a Mark of Justice is a spell to keep you from doing something undesirable to the caster."

Louise cant believe these people are actually talking about this "You cant tell me you are actually considering this Raskreia, she should be thrown into jail or even executed, not given a job."

Raskreia looks aghast, "Executed, for theft? A bit harsh don't you think? And yes I am actually considering it, I could soon use someone with access to the local black market."

The pink haired girl looks about to explode when Kirche intervenes "Louise calm down, that is actually something rather smart to do. If Rask can actually ensure loyalty as she claimed. Black market connections are incredibly beneficial to a newly forming business as nearly any Germanian could tell you, which they wont."

Once more the young girl deflates "B-but, that. FINE! Do whatever. But don't expect me to help you any way."

"Now hold on, don't I get any say in this?"

Everyone once more turns towards the bound woman and Zarhon speaks up "Sure you do, its either work for us or be handed over, those are your options."

"That is b-" she gets interrupted by Raskreia "Blackmailing? Hardly. It is offering you a more desirable option instead of what would normally await you."

"Fine! But I expect an explanation as to what this Mark of Justice is before my final decision. Also my employer will come after me, and by extension you if I don't deliver that staff to them." This makes Raskreia smile again at the prospect of having made a new pseudo-ally.

"Does anyone know what you really look like?"

Fouquet looks a bit confused at this line of questioning but answers nonetheless "No, some might realize I'm female but other than that I was always quite careful with my identity."

To which Raskreia nods before fishing out a piece of meat out of her bag, to the bafflement of the natives but before they can question her about it she starts casting a spell **'Polymorph any object'** Which then turns the piece of meat into the unmoving body of a human woman of approximately the same build as Fouquet herself.

After a short inspection Raskreia turns back to her new employee and motions to the fake corpse. "That is Fouquet, she is dead, wouldn't you say? Burned to death." After saying the last bit she casually shoots a set of **'Scorching ray's'** at the "Corpse" burning most of it severely making it almost unrecognizable as a person.

"There, that should do the trick." She turns back to see the horrified faces of the locals even Tabitha has her eyes a bit wide. "What?"

"You just turned a piece of meat into a human body. That's what!" Kirche Exclaimed arms waiving at the charred corpse to help get her point across.

"Err.. its just a human body, nothing to it. It wasn't even alive. Hell I could turn a pebble into a living human with that spell, but that wouldn't last for any significant amount of time."

"Ninth circle?" Tabitha said as she was closely inspecting the body on the ground to see if it was truly authentic, and at a cursory inspection it indeed was.

"Nah, that's still in the eight circle, the thing I used to turn the golem to ash was sixth and the last spell I cast was second." She said to which Tabitha nodded.

Louise however is not having it "You have got to be kidding me, what does it bloody take for you to classify something as a ninth circle spell?"

"This **'Gate'** " as she finishes her incantation a oval portal opens where she pointed at an one can see a road on the other end of the portal leading to a set of massive gates within an equally massive wall. The road is currently traveled by a number of people going to and from the city one can see in the distance, one person, a rather short man with a long beard even walks up to the portal looks through and walks away once more.

Zarhon takes this as his cue and hoists Fouquet up before saying "This would be my part then, come on, of we go."

Fouquet looks at the oval portal in what might be worry and turns towards Raskreia "What is this?"

Raskreia looks at her trying to figure out what exactly she means by this but decides that the portal is the most likely candidate "It's a tear in reality leading to my home-world. There you will meet one of my friends who will inscribe the mark of justice upon you, which will prevent you from betraying us, don't worry we will probably remove it after a while. Oh and Zarhon, tell Kwalin to start preparing, the operation is a go."

"I heard. I will go talk to Thorgal as well, maybe he wants to share in this too." He says as he walks on through the portal, still visible from the other side. Fouquet looks apprehensive for a moment before following, whereupon the portal closes itself as if it was never there.

Raskreia then turns and grins at the people still left "Well, time to deliver Fouquet and The Staff to the headmaster."

* * *

 **And that's a cut.**

 **Hah, I'm getting more frequent aren't I? No omake this time though.**

 **Well I don't have anything of import to say soooo… bye.**


	13. Chapter 13

"Speech: Halkeginian"

 _'Thoughts/telepathy'_

 **'Spells and the like'**

 _"Speech: Common/Dwarven"_

 _ **"Speech: Draconic"**_

* * *

Golarion: country of Druma, City of Highelm

* * *

Fouquet or, as some very select few might know her as, Matilda was fully intent on ditching the Man that had escorted her through some sort of portal that is friend with the woman who had ruined her plans.

This mindset lasted for all but five minutes as they approached the ENOURMOUS walls of a city. They dwarfed the ones of Romalia at least twice over, and those gates look like they weigh tons upon tons, not surprising considering that they appear to be made out of metal and stone. How they manage to operate them she can only guess.

Her resolve to flee further evaporated when she looked around herself, or more precisely the people that are sharing the road with them. Short stocky people, were it one or two she would chalk it of as a birth defect but there is at least a dozen, and unless there is some form of midget bazaar going on it is unlikely for so many people with the same defect to be in the same place. Not to mention these people did not look like it was some for of defect at all, they look natural, all their limbs being the right size and all.

As they approach the gates her guide, Zarhon, she reminds herself, suddenly sprouts a long fleshy tail as if it was completely natural. But considering the visage she had seen that familiar take on it might just be.

 _'Dear Brimir what have I gotten myself into.'_ She muses to herself.

Once they get closer she can see that the guards of this place are too of the short stocky kind. She might have considered it funny if someone had told her there was a city somewhere with massive walls guarded by midgets, if she hadn't seen it first hand just now.

Unlike the people who had been walking along side them for the past few minutes who are obviously civilians, these guards looks fierce. Much fiercer than any guard Matilda had ever seen outside palace or even royal guards. Their entire bodies were covered in chain and plate, magnificent long beards decorated intricately and wielding long pole-arms. They meticulously go check each and every person, not throughout enough to be considered invasive but every person is checked.

Matilda cant help but gulp, if this is what these peoples gate guards are like she does not really want to find out what might be found deeper inside.

As they wait in line Zarhon sees her inspecting the guards of the place and whispers into her ear "Yeah, dwarves can be a bit iffy about security, especially in one of their capitals."

"Dwarves?!" she almost shouts out before reigning it back into a whisper. She only gets a nod from the bard, and now that she can see his face she can see that there is a pair of rather small horns jutting out of his forehead. _'Great, I might just have made a deal with the devil.'_

Once it is their turn the guards quickly check them over and wave them in, Matilda not understanding a single word they are saying. and now that she is inside the gatehouse Matilda cant help but shudder at the amount of redundant defences it had. It must be a nightmare to try an assault this place.

Once again the bard notices her all but gawking "Yeah, impressive, isn't it? But its only the outer gates, the inner gates is by far more impressive."

 _'INNER GATES! MORE IMPRESSIVE? What do they need more gates for with outer gates like these.'_

As they are walking out of the gatehouse Matilda once more focuses on her surroundings, what greets her beyond is a bustling city dozens of dozens of people walking to and from.

Most of them are these so called Dwarves, but what catches her eye is the fact that there is so very few humans in the crowd and… IS THAT AN ELF!?`

"Yes that is an elf, not that common in a dwarven city but they exist. Also stop staring that's impolite." Shaking her head in embarrassment she quickly starts walking after the Bard looking at everything and everyone.

She notices that there is a regular amount of guards everywhere and that not a single person does not have at least a dagger with them. In fact there is quite a few people in full gear, consisting of armour and weapons fit for any knight but not associated with the guard from what she can tell.

Looking up after hearing a screech she sees a squadron of dwarves flying of gryphons moving overhead. She cant help but marvel at this city, it feels completely alive yet she also feels at once secure and oppressed.

Walking further into the city they exit what might be the residential area, bypassing what she assumes to be the commercial area judging by the sounds coming from there and going straight towards what she assumes to be the industrial area.

As they get closer she can see, and more importantly hear, that she was indeed correct in her assumption as she starts hearing the rhythmic hammering of steel on steel from many places around her.

But it also seems like this might serve as some form of commercial area, considering the amount of people here. Most of these people are armed and armoured with a few who appear to be mages of some kind. And aren't they a jolly mix of races. Some she has never seen or heard of before. Walking lizards, people even shorter still than dwarves, a woman with bird like wings coming from her back, some man with aqua blue skin, elves, humans, dwarves, and even a humanoid rat of all things. It takes quite a bit of willpower for her to not stare at these people but she manages.

In the distance she can see a smaller wall jutting out from the ground, in the centre of which is what seems to be a oversized forge, judging by the plumes of fire coming out of the chimney periodically. And this is what they are approaching.

Right on the other side of the street of this walled in complex in fact.

The building they are entering is of solid make and two stories tall, she would have read the sign but finds that the writing is illegible to her just like the languages she has heard so far.

What she notices is that this building has quite a bit of traffic all things considered, mostly from all those mercenary looking people she had been passing quite often the past half an hour.

Stepping through the large double-doors into a very large room with rows upon rows of armour and weapons lining the walls and on shelves on both floors, the upper floor being visible from below. The shop currently houses a good dozen people browsing various weapons that each look quite expensive to her eyes.

Zarhon once more leans in to whisper something to her "Don't steal anything here. I mean it, you wouldn't like what happens if you do." As he says that he nods towards something behind her, and looking back she sees something that she has no idea how she missed it in the first place.

Two really rather large golems that appear to be made of iron. But what unnerves her is the fact that something is off about these golems. Their faux eyes are watching, like, actually watching everyone in the shop closely.

Walking through the shop she has the opportunity to look at quite a few weapons as they pass and many of them she wouldn't mind possessing herself, but the lingering threat of the golems is still there and she really does not want to find out if these are actually as dangerous as she assumes them to perhaps be.

After a brief conversation between the bard and a exotic looking woman they are let into the back of the shop, a conversation that she once again could not understand since it is in yet another language, the fifth or sixth she has heard in this city so far if she has heard correctly. What a diverse place this is.

But as interesting as such a thing is she would much rather understand what is being said. And voices such thoughts "You know, as much as I like hearing new languages I would much rather know what is being said, especially as it concerns me as much as you in this case."

The bard looks a bit confused at first and then looks a bit ashamed of himself "Ah, apologies. I forgot that you don't speak the common tongue. Here let me cast a translation spell on you. **'Tongues'** " She doesn't resist the spell being cast as she sees little point of him trying to harm her at this point. And once the magic settles the background chatter from the store makes a hell of a lot more sense, well, the parts she can hear at least.

Going further through the corridor they are in and through a door they come into what Matilda must admit is probably the most well equipped forge/workshop she has ever seen. Quite a number of people working on this weapon or that armour and even a few muskets are being made here and there by skilled hands. As they are walking towards the middle of the workshop a dull explosion can be heard behind a closed iron door to one side, yet judging by the lack of reaction by pretty much anybody this must be a regular occurrence as such she ignores it as well.

Once they arrive at the centre of the workshop she takes a second to study its make, and its rather impressive in and of itself. Large pistons are constantly fuelling it air, four large openings are shaped into the likeness of faces and when one opens the hatches in their mouths it reveals the burning inferno beyond. In the short moments one of such hatches is opened she could swear she saw something move inside the furnace but passes it off as her imagination.

Working at this central forge is what she would call, from what she has seen so far, a prime specimen of his species. A very long mane of hair and a beard as, if not longer than his hair, both braided with fine decorations inlaid in them. He is almost as broad as he is tall but not an ounce of fat to be seen on him, just pure muscle. This look contrasts greatly with the current work he is performing, engraving fine decorations upon a set of plate armour, decorations so detailed and fine it would take others magic to make yet he does it with simple tools any black- or gold-smith would have. This will, once its complete be a exquisite set of armour that is for certain.

They just stand there next to the dwarf for a good five minutes, not saying a word and presumably waiting for him to notice them. She can understand that, with what he is currently doing a distraction could ruin his entire work. After those five minutes the dwarf stops, having completed the current symbol he had been working on and looks up, instantly spotting her and the bard next to her. To her surprise the dwarf lets out a sigh loud enough to be heard even in here.

Zarhon flashes the dwarf a huge grin offering his hand in greeting _"Hey Kwalin! Just thought id let you know I'm back"_

 _"So you met Raskreia over in that other world then?"_ The dwarf, Kwalin, says in a tone of resignation but that is not what catches Matilda's attention _'Wait what? Other world?'_

 _"Oh yeah, and she sent me to let you know that your operation is a go."_

To which Kwalin simply nods at which point he turns towards her. _"And the lass?"_

 _"Oh, her! Right. This is Fouquet, she is a new employee of ours and she is… a rouge, if you will."_ Kwalin's eyes narrow on her which causes a shudder to run down her back _'He is dangerous!'_

 _"You haven't been there a year yet and already you associate with criminals. Was this your idea or the airhead."_ During this entire sentence he has neither taken his eyes of her nor blinked, which made her sweat more than the heat of this place ever could.

 _"Hers, actually. And we would like you to cast a Mark of Justice on her."_ The amount of cheer Zarhon put into his voice that sentence made this all the more uncomfortable for her, yet she is not about to let a dwarf of all things stare her down. So she, gathering all her willpower, straightens herself up and stares right back into the unblinking eyes staring at her.

After a few moments of this and just as her eyes start to water Kwalin lets out a deep chuckle. _"HAH! At the very least she has some backbone. Fine I will cast the spell, but tomorrow, don't have it prepared today_. _Of course I still haven't heard her say anything about this. Few people steal without reason, so tell me, Fouquet, what is yours."_

Taking it as her cue to speak and considering her words wisely, she doubts lies would fly well for her, and this person seems like someone to value honesty.

 _"Well, I required money at a certain point in my life, for reasons that are my own, and I needed it fast. So I did the first thing that came to mind and stole from those that seemed to have too much for their own good. I never really harmed anyone during my work and was just after the money needed to help… a friend. That is all I am willing to say."_

He studies her closely for a few moments, likely trying to find any falsehoods in her story. Which there are none. The only thing she left out are a few details concerning her friend and the fact that by now she is stealing for more than just to help her friend but also because she likes the challenge of a well executed heist.

 _"I see. And is this friend of yours sick or injured that you need to care for them?"_ Contemplating whether or not to reveal the reason she needs to support her friend she decides that a half truth would be best at this point.

 _"Brimir I hope not, not she runs an orphanage. And I am helping her cover the costs as the nation does not fund it. And before you ask, she does not know where the money comes from, I doubt she would accept it otherwise."_ Studying her words once more he suddenly starts chuckling once more.

 _"I like you Fouquet. Hah! A Thief with a heart, what will Raskreia encounter next? A friendly balor? Now off with you, I have work to do."_

 _"Alright but first: You Jinxed us with the balor. And second: we should contact Thorgal and ask him if he wants to partake in this too."_ The bard says while already heading for the exit.

 _"Already done so and he has sent quite a bit of money just in case it actually happens. We have everything set up on our side."_ The dwarf waves dismissively at them to leave.

Once they reach the main part of the shop Zarhon turns back towards her "Alright, let us find a tavern for the - " before he can finish she is treated to something that those that frequent this place could tell her is a rather rare occurrence. The heads of both golems at the entrance snap towards the space between them and they both at the same time punch the air, their fists colliding mid way with a sound of flesh being torn and bones broken.

 _'Wait, flesh and bone?'_ as if to answer her question a mangled and broken body of what might have once been a woman appears out of thin air on the ground, blood splattered everywhere. Its all she can do not to vomit all over the place.

"Oh look, a thief!" as he says that the woman behind the counter walks outside at a sedated pace and calls for a nearby guard. Said guard walks over, sees the corpse, sees the sword she is still holding in her now broken arms, nods, slings the corpse over his shoulder, and walks away.

The woman looks at the blood that is sullying the place, and with a wave of her hand the ring on one of her fingers glows briefly before all the blood and gore is gone as if it was never there.

The people in the shop, while a bit startled at first, are now browsing the different items once more, trying out this or that, and animatedly chatting about what had just happened.

 _'Brimir, he was right. I would not like what happens when one steals from here.'_

* * *

TAoM

* * *

Those that had remained behind after Zarhon and Fouquet have left once more make their way towards the academy. The air I filled with an awkward silence broken by small talk between Raskreia and Felniir, non of which the locals can understand. After ten or so minutes of this Kirche joins them and with both of the other now switching to the native language for Kirche's benefit.

Once they arrive they all head towards the headmasters office in silence once more, Raskreia carrying the container holding the item they had gone out to find in the first place.

Inside the office Osmond is already waiting for them along with Colbert.

"Ah I see you have retrieved the staff, but where is miss Longueville?" he does seem happy at the retrieval of the item yet at once worried about his employee, at least Raskreia now knows that he actually cares for those he employs. Maybe the incident with Siesta was actually out of his hands.

Raskreia steps up putting the box holding the weapon onto the headmasters desk "We did retrieve it, and I sent miss Zarhon to bring Longueville to a the best healer I know, post haste."

"Ah I see, know however that we would have had a competent healer on site as well." He smiles at the four girls present in the room. "But what happened to the thief, Fouquet?

"Her body is outside in the carriage." This was surprisingly Kirche who spoke. "Fouquet was a woman, and she is now dead."

Both Colbert and Osmond look sadly upon the young people present in the room. "Ah, I see. Such a shame that people as young as you had to see something like that then."

After a few moments of silence Osmond once more brightens up and smiles at the three noble girls "Never the less I am to award you three the title of Chevalier for capturing, or in this case eliminating, the thief by order of the crown. Well two of you at least, miss Tabitha already holds that title." Any shock the two might have felt at Tabitha already possessing this title is overwritten by the fact that they are both gaining such a title for basically doing nothing.

Louise has something else on her mind though. "What about Raskreia, she did most of the work, as did that man."

The two adults look a bit sad before Colbert speaks for them "While that man, I forget his name, would qualify for the title and he will receive it once he returns, Raskreia does not. She is a familiar, and her actions are by our law your actions miss Vallière."

Raskreia looks thoughtful for a moment as the others voice their outrage "Peace your three." Seeing that she got their attention she continues "He has a point, a similar law exists where I come from as well. Though I must admit that I have never heard of a human to be summoned. In either case I don't particularly care for the title." That pacifies the duo who had spoken up for her and makes the men smile.

 _'I'm surprised at how mature this woman can be sometimes.'_ Colbert thinks to himself.

A clap from the headmaster garners everyone's attention once more "Very well, now that this is out of the way, on to something more pleasant. In celebration to your feat of heroics we shall be holding a ball tomorrow evening, with the fou-" he stops at as he hears a growl coming from the cat in the room "- I mean five of you are of course invited as guests of honour."

This information makes the girls present smile, as it would do for any young woman, and Raskreia sends a subtle wink towards Kirche who after a moment realizes that this falls under 'The next opportunity' which they had spoken about earlier that day, though she had hoped for something less public.

Raskreia after a few seconds of listening to Louise and Kirche proclaim their excitement turns back towards the headmaster smile on her face. "I believe we had a deal did we not?"

He returns her smile as he leans forward resting his head on his hands "I believe we did. How soon can transport be arranged?"

Raskreia looks at him, and her smile changes slightly, now not radiating kindness but rather malice "Oh I would say as soon as you stop using that familiar of yours to look under my robe." As if in answer to her statement a small white mouse instantly scurries out from beneath Raskreia's robes to the horror of the girls present who turn to glare at their headmaster who is now sweating bullets. "Right…be sure this wont happen again. To the vault then."

Still quite nervous the headmaster stands up, making sure to keep a wide berth from the masses of feminine fury in the centre of his office to lead the group towards the ruined vault.

Once there Raskreia looks over the masses of items scattered everywhere and tries to figure out how long it would take to move all this, noting the crudely repaired wall, yet also noting the lack of magic coursing through it after a brief check with her arcane sight. Deciding that with the people present it wouldn't be all that easy to simply move all this nor wanting many strangers to enter her home she turns towards the headmaster. "Say, can you cast a spell to move this through the portal I will open? Sadly I have to concentrate on keeping the portal open and cannot cast any other spells while doing so."

"Oh I am sure those present cant help with that, how long can you keep this portal open?" Osmond says as he observes the piles of items everywhere, it shouldn't be to hard to merely move it using wind magic.

After doing a bit of math in her head to be as accurate as possible, Raskreia replies to the inquiry "Well, I can keep a Gate open for two minutes before it grows too unstable to maintain, and I can open… five more today. So ten minutes in total, if that is not enough I can do the same again tomorrow."

"That should be enough id wager. Even if not we should be fine for one night. And Miss Vallière please no explosions in here." To which the girl nods in sullen understanding.

The next ten minutes are spent with one person holding open a tear in time and space while the other people are quickly moving a mass of items using wind, or by what-ever other means they have at hand/paw, through said rip in space and time. By the end, the vast majority of items is now secured within a space only accessible by very few and the seven people in the vault are left panting slightly.

Osmond stretches a bit before letting out a content sigh "Ah, nothing like flexing ones magic like this once in a while. Now then, you held your part of the agreement young miss, now I shall hold mine. If I remember correctly you were interested in the purchase of a trio of items, I had taken the liberty of placing them inside my office for now."

"Ah I was wondering were they were, thanks headmaster, I appreciate it. Why don't we go back to your office to get them."

"Very well, and I do so wish to know what you know about them as well." Then he looks over at his students, who are swaying lightly from exhaustion "It seems however that these three students of mine are getting tired. Please do head off to your rooms and rest, tomorrow will be an exciting day after all." The three look reluctant at first but after a moment they realize that they wont be missing much anyways and silently trudge off to get some shut eye.

The three adults and tiger once more reconvene inside the headmasters office, and after a servant delivers some refreshments for them they sit in comfortable silence for a few moments.

Its Osmond who breaks this silence once more after finishing his current cup of tea and pouring himself some more. He then pulls out his wand and levitating a blanked away that is covering the three items, the staff and (presumably) the hourglass being inside the cauldron.

"I am assuming you have the money requested." And to his surprise she pulls out a sizable bag out of a much smaller bag, ignoring the fascinating display of magic he focuses on the bag which, judging by the sound it is making, is filled to the brim with coinage. "Very well, now what can you tell me of these items. Know that I wont be altering the price nor will I decide to keep them after I know what they are, as I said before I merely wish my curiosity to be satisfied.

Raskreia smiles then walks over to the items in question, inspecting them closely. After a minute or so she walks back and sits down once more.

"Well, I have no idea what the cauldron and the hourglass do, but I know the staff. Or rather I know staffs like it." The two men are listening with curiosity "All three items have one thing in common, they are artifacts. Now I don't mean that in the sense that they are old, which they probably still are, but in the sense that they are extremely powerful magical items."

Colbert looks over at the items with a gaze that Raskreia might describe as hungry. "So you are saying that these things are something from your home then?" to which she shrugs.

"Potentially but I cant be certain. Anyways, with artifacts its rather hard to determine their function unless you can identify which one you are looking at in the first place. And again I don't know two of them, but the staff is a Staff of the Magi." As she says that she mage hands the staff over and the two locals are looking over the staff trying to discern what makes it so, supposedly, powerful.

"These things were crafted during my homes ancient times in a long gone empire, and they were given back then to their most powerful mages. Each one is pretty much the same, but still they are quite outstanding staves. For one they give the wielder a certain amount of protection against magic as a whole, they let them cast a number of spells by using the magic stored inside the staff, and perhaps most importantly can be used to completely negate spells being used against its wielder to refuel its internal magic. Oh and it is, as pretty much all artifacts REALLY hard to destroy. In fact destroying this particular item will actually more often than not kill the person who breaks it."

Colbert was looking at Osmond in a way that was saying 'And you sold this thing?'

Osmond blinks a few times not having expected something like this to have been stored in his vault. "I-I see. This is most unexpected. I understand that it is now yours, but would you be terribly opposed to us more closely studying this staff?"

She thinks it over for a few moments, on one hand knowledge like this is best kept close and guarded. But then again many have tried recreating artifacts such as this and failed miserably, what could it hurt for them to inspect it, it will only garner her more good will from them if she accepts. "I wouldn't mind all that much honestly. As long as you don't break the thing of course."

The old man smiles at her in relief, such knowledge could help in the coming conflicts. "I thank you. Now, I believe it is getting late, and it is way past my bed time. Why don't we all go take a well deserved rest in preparation of tomorrow." To which the other people in the room nod and exit at their own pace, Raskreia after stuffing her newly acquired items inside of a bag of holding much to the amazement of the people present, and Colbert shortly afterwards.

Unknown to everyone but Felniir, after rounding the first corner Raskreia starts silently jumping up and down in excitement and cheering at the fact she has just acquired not one, not two, but THREE artifacts for such a low price. Hell, even if one of them is ultimately useless to her she can sell it for substantially more than she paid for them as a whole back home.

* * *

The next morning

* * *

Raskreia's morning was quite busy, well… To call it morning would be an overstatement in and of itself, as she took full advantage of the fact that she only had to rest for two hours. First and foremost she used her newly acquired staff to planeshift herself into her own demi-plane.

Once there she makes a beeline towards her dwelling, or more specifically the basement thereof. In there she purposefully strides past numerous closed doors and walks on forward, through a forge, through a secret door, through a trap door and trough a cave and into a hidden room where there is a library.

This library, while not as large as could be, is quite the sizable collection of some of the more esoteric works Raskreia has come across in her travels. But what is the more interesting thing in here is the floating, eye shaped, gem currently reading one of said books.

Sidling up to the eye she takes a moment to look at what book it is that it is reading, which happens to be just some romance novel. _**"Hey, Xel. I have something to do for you."**_

The thing, Xel, turns to regard her for the first time since she came here. _**"If we must. I have been here doing nothing but read books for the past year, at any rate. Let us be off then."**_

Xel as her close friends would know, is not your ordinary, sentient floating eye/gem. No it is a magic item she has crafted with the express purpose of studying any texts she comes across, and perhaps more importantly, make spells she casts permanent if she so desires.

She smiles at it and unceremoniously grabs it, and gates herself, and Felniir away.

* * *

Druma, Highelm.

* * *

Raskreia appears once more outside of the dwarven stronghold of Highelm, and after going through the usual proceedings of entering and walking through the city she arrives at her intended destination, which is once again Kwalin's workshop.

And after a short, but pleasant chat with Kasumi, who told her about the incident earlier that day, she heads into the back of the store into the workshop.

 _"Kwalin! How are you."_ She calls out to her friend, unperturbed by the fact that he is currently doing rather delicate work on a set of plate armour, which to be fair does not phase him in the slightest.

Without even stopping his work he addresses her _"Raskreia, I hoped you would come along soon, go find Kloin, he should be here somewhere. You can settle everything with him, oh and the share of the rest of us that want to invest is with him too."_ Nodding to him, not that he can see, she walks off to find the young dwarf.

After not even a minute he spots him behind a desk brooding over a stack of papers. He spots her as soon as she approaches and gives her a hearty smile _"Ah, there you are. I expected you to come soon, but not this soon. Father was right with you anything is possible I suppose."_ He shakes his head in amusement while she just pouts at the fact that everyone seems to be making fun of her sometimes, not helped by the snickering from the tiger next to her.

 _"Nevertheless I have everything in order, I even prepared a formula of a spell you had wanted for quite some time now, simulacrum. I assume you know where I am going with this, no?"_

To his mild surprise and large amusement she lets out an excited squeal _"YOU DID!? You are the best godchild one can ask for, I have been looking for a copy of that spell for ages!"_

He just strokes his slowly lengthening beard in amusement _"What can I say, I try."_

To which she cant help but laugh _"That you do, anyways. I assume you would like me to provide a form of transportation for you right?"_ To which he nods and she give him a toothy grin. "Well its time for me to blow your expectations away and tell you I will trump anything you might have envisioned."

He cocks his eyebrow and, to someone used to his facial expressions, one can tell that he is showing a moderate amount of apprehension at what might be considered exciting for the half-dragoness.

 _"I will create you a Demi-plane that connects from here to there."_ He lets out the breath he had held for now at the fact that things are not as bad as it might have had been.

 _"That would indeed be useful, but as I am to understand it something like that costs a small fortune to create, or at least to make it last. Does it not?"_ to which she just keeps smiling at him.

 _"Let that be my worry just give me a spot where I can make such a portal."_ He just nods in acceptance and thinks for a moment.

 _"Out back of the workshop should be fine, we can always just make a door or gate around it and people deliver things to the back of the shop quite frequently anyways so the added traffic shouldn't draw attention."_

 _"Right then, I will get right to it. I should be done by the end of the next day."_ She, without further words pockets all the items offered to her and heads over to where Kwalin is and merely passes by him while saying a few words that make him stop hammering for a few seconds before shaking his head and continuing as if nothing out of the ordinary happened. _"Gonna go out back and create an inter-dimensional portal there."_

Once in the back Raskreia zeroes in on a suitable spot for a portal like this, where she then settles herself to create such a portal by creating an entirely new demi-plane. Which will take a paltry six hours, an then another twelve hours to make the actual portals for both ends… joy.

 _'Yeah no way in hell I am doing all that today, wait doesn't Simulacrum take twelve hours as well… fuck me.'_

Six hours, and several leg cramps later Raskreia sits back up now within a newly created pocket in space.

 _"Well, got this part done and over with at least._ _ **Thank you Xel your help was appreciated I will I will planeshift us home now if you don't mind."**_

In response Xel floats over from where it had been inspecting the edge of space and hums in what might be considered agreement. Raskreia takes her new favorite toy in hand and both of them are gone in a blink, leaving the newly created space empty.

* * *

TAoM

* * *

After having dropped of Xel back at home and then returned to the academy Raskreia's first order of business was to finalize her deal with the Zerbst. A deal that did not take all that long and now a good eight thousand gold pieces lighter from acquiring the deed for the land she steers the conversation towards a more casual direction.

"Sooo, about that ball tonight." Rask starts out.

Kirche looks a bit uncertain now that it actually came this far "So I am to take it that you would like to go there with me then?"

To which Rask just smiles warmly "Well, yes actually. Besides you are the only one, so far to have asked me, if indirectly. Mind you I am quite sure quite a few boys are going to ask sooner rather than later but first come first served. Never mind the fact that I have yet to see a guy here that I can stand."

"I suppose we could" Kirche starts out "I mean, what's the harm?"

"Exactly!" Rask stands up and walks towards the exit "I cant wait for this evening to arrive, oh and dress to impress. I know I will." And with that she was gone.

Outside Raskreia stands there for a moment, unsure of what to do next.

 _'Well, I could either finish the portals, or I could make myself the simulacrum… I think the portals are of a higher priority though, so that's what im going to do, the simulacrum can wait until tomorrow.'_

 **'Greater Teleport'** and with that incantation she was gone from the academy once more.

* * *

Border between Tristain and Germania.

* * *

The border between these two countries is largely empty, as their relations are not the best for the most part, to put it mildly. Sure there are roads and such leading to and fro, even quite nice plots of land here and there. This is not one of them.

True, there is a road, but that would give it too much credit to be honest, it is more of a beaten path, a muddy one at that, leading through something between a marsh, plains and a swamp. So all in all not a place one would like to build anything, normally.

Thankfully Raskreia is anything but normal and her only thought is the fact that this _'Thank the gods for magic.'_

Looking around for a moment she spots a prime place to start a outpost, on a hill and next to the road/path and even relatively dry to start out with.

So walking up to the very top of the hill she then casts a **'Wall of stone'** around herself to keep out any casual intruders for the time being and mentally prepares herself for the coming twelve hours of casting. This time however she is smart about it, by placing a blanket and a pillow beneath herself first.

 _'Why oh why can't these spells be done quicker.'_

Twelve further hours of weaving the fabric of creation to her will Raskreia is once more standing in the new Demi-plane which now resembles a dark tunnel, with exits on both ends.

Walking over to the Golarion side of things she walks straight into Kwalin's workshop through the back entrance. Once in she seeks out Kloin once more, who is still sitting behind the same desk he had been hours ago, or perhaps again considering it is a new day for them over here.

He looks up at her and it looks like he had not expected her back so soon _"Back so soon? Have you finished everything?"_ to which she shakes her head.

 _"No but I finished the damn portals, you can get people over now, oh and here is the deed."_ She says as she pulls out a roll of parchment handing it to him.

 _"I hope you can live with the fact that you will have to wait a while for me to make the simulacrum, I cant be asked to do any more long castings for today."_ He nods and takes the deed from her.

 _"Right, I will get the workers started on making a perimeter and such."_

 _"You do that, I am going to speak with your father."_ And she leaves to go find the other dwarf she wants to talk to.

And she does find him, as he is currently finishing his prayers.

 _"I see you are back again, are you finished breaching a hole through reality in my backyard?"_ he says with no real hostility in his voice, heis probably thinking this being the most convenient solution to the problem of transportation just like her.

 _"I have, but I would like your help with the creation of a simulacrum tomorrow, more specifically you healing me after I use blood money to fund the damn thing."_ He nods and walks past her.

 _"That can be arranged. Anything else you need?"_ She contemplates a moment but cant think of anything, Kloin even got her a good amount of Ruby dust for the creation of the simulacrum, more than enough as to cover the fact that she cannot make all of it out of her own blood.

 _"Nope, I'm good. Kloin finished the most tedious parts already, so I am just going to go back."_ He just grunts and starts collecting his tools and to start work for the day.

Raskreia meanwhile walks out back, through a extra-dimensional tunnel and into a marsh. Where she casts **'Greater Teleport'** once more, while thinking about how nice it is that she doesn't have to use a ninth level spell anymore to travel between the two worlds.

* * *

TAoM

* * *

In the great hall the ball has already started and all students and faculty, minus a secretary, are present. Everyone is dressed in their finest clothes and trying to vie for attention of their peers.

Well, all but a few.

Tabitha for example seems more interested in the offered food.

Louise who has surprised everyone with her magnificent looks once properly brought to shine, was mostly keeping to herself. Somewhat perturbed that people who had bullied her not too long ago are trying to garner her favor now that she looks attractive in their eyes.

Kirche is also gaining quite a bit of attention but valiantly shooting off all of it, as she is waiting for her date of the evening. She took Raskreia's words to heart and did indeed dress up in her finest dress. It is a fine silk piece of dark blue closely hugging her figure and fit for high nobility such as her.

She is a bit put of by the fact that Raskreia is late, but it is still within the margin of being fashionable so she is forgiven… for now.

Just as she was about to give up on her arriving and just going to accept a dance from one of the boys still trying to get her attention the door of the hall opens to admit one more guest.

And most everyone's jaws would have hit the floor if it was possible for them to do so.

There in the door stood Raskreia hair, which is usually pulled into a ponytail, I now left hanging loose all the way to her lower back and has been interwoven with gold, accentuating its natural silver color. Her dress I pure white, with multiple layers of overlapping cloth. She is also wearing what might be called a corset made of what appears to be silver, which has two inlaid, lightly glowing gems in its center. Her right arm is covered in a sleeve while her right arm is left mostly exposed yet sports a shoulder piece and wrist guard of the same make as the chest piece, including the gems.

All in all it gives he a kind of ethereal feel that many wish they could attain but never do.

Raskreia saunters up to a slack-jawed Kirche and extends her hand towards her date for the evening. "My apologies for being late, I shant make excuses for it is unforgivable to make a lady wait. May I still have a the honor of a dance?" the mischievous smile Rask has on her face as she is holding out her hand does it all for Kirche who with little to no hesitation takes the offered hand.

"Why how could I ever say no to someone like you."

* * *

Aaaand done.

Let me just apologize for one thing, I cant describe clothes for shit. If you want to know what Raskreia's dress looks like look up Tyrande Whisperwind (new one) from World of Warcraft. Basically that.

Also I wonder if someone can correctly guess the last two artifacts (both are official, but the cauldron is a custom official artifact, so basically the same as the official but a bit modified)

And ALSO I wonder if someone can guess what she plans to make as a simulacrum and what for, here is a hint it has 23HD.


	14. Chapter 14

"Speech: Halkeginian"

 _'Thoughts/telepathy'_

 **'Spells and the like'**

 _"Speech: Common/Dwarven"_

 _ **"Speech: Draconic"**_

* * *

The next morning Raskreia wakes up next to Kirche, who is currently using her as a pillow, in her room. Nothing explicit has happened, much to Kirche's silent disappointment, but it was nice to share a bed with someone once in a while.

During the ball they had talked a bit and Kirche had been scandalized to find out Raskreia had been sleeping in a bedroll this entire time, and as such has offered her to share her bed. Internally Kirche had been hoping for more but in the end she knows when to not be too pushy with things and Raskreia seemed exhausted, from what she couldn't really tell. When asked she said something weird about how hard 'weaving creation' is.

As Raskreia is used to waking up just short of dawn she is up quite a bit earlier than her erstwhile roommate, so it is only after quietly slipping out of bed and performing all of her morning rituals that Kirche finally wakes probably stirred awake by the fact that her 'Body-pillow' is now no longer in huggable distance.

Looking around blearily her eyes land on Raskreia who was just finishing to tying up her hair. "You are up to early. Why are you up so early?" She asks with a light slur.

"Sorry Red. I have things to do, places to be, otherwise id love nothing more than to sleep in for once." Kirche slowly nods and falls back onto her pillow.

Silently exiting the room she goes to where she suspected Felniir to be, in the clearing in the woods sleeping with Sylphid.

Once in said clearing she is surprised that there is not one but three occupants, none of them asleep. Tabitha seems to have wanted to check on her familiar and is now inspecting Felniir's equipment while the cat is silently watching the human do her thing.

As Rask approaches she is figuratively crushed by a hug from Sylphid, who thanks to Felniir instructing her now had a much better control of her own strength.

 _ **"Hey there to you too Illo, is see you are well."**_ As she says that the dragon lets go of her and takes a step or two back.

 _ **"Morning Rask, Big sis just came here to see how if I am alright. She had been inspecting Felly forever now though."**_ Was the dragons reply as she looked back at Tabitha with a small amount of jealousy.

"I see. Hey Tabitha, something catch your eye?" to witch the young mage just points at the various trinkets scattered across the tigress, such a the metal collar, the bracers and the small earrings.

"Magic?" Raskreia mentally sigh's, one day this girl will talk in full sentences.

"Yes they are all magical, and I made each and every one myself." She said, hopefully correctly guessing what the blue themed wanted to know. And judging by her nod she has.

"How?"

"How, I make them or how they work? Both? Well, I make them by taking a mundane piece and inscribing invisible runes into it with special ink which gets absorbed into the item. Then I infuse the runes with some magically potent material or another to give them a jump start as it were. And from there they pull magic from around them to power themselves." Rask nearly laughs at the look of pure interest in the girls eyes, while the rest of her face stays as indifferent as ever.

"Learn?" That last word sounded almost eager.

"You want to learn to do this? Well I have a book or two back home on the topic. I was going to go there anyways, so I will just bring them."

After that the younger girl nods in what might have been eagerness.

 _ **"All right you furball, I'm going to go work on stuff, you want to stay here?"**_ her answer is a mere dismissive wave of a paw.

With a shrug Raskreia vanishes through a **'Gate'**

* * *

Raskreia's demi-plane

* * *

With a nary a sound a dwarf and an elf are deposited in a space outside of space.

Raskreia had gone and retrieved Kwalin from his workshop so he could make it that she is no longer catatonic after sacrificing her bodies strength.

 _"You know, some might call you sadistic for casting spells like this."_ And the dwarf would be correct. Using blood money to fuel spells as powerful, or demanding, as she is about to cast is not normally done. Excepting bloatmages of course, but the less said about them the better.

 _"I just call I capitalism, saves us almost ten thousand gold. Besides I had my bones broken and an arm hacked off, its not like I have a problem with pain."_ Which makes the Dwarf grunt in acceptance.

 _"Alright then, lets do this, see you in twelve hours,_ **'Time stop'** "

After having cast the powerfull spell Raskreia is positioned outside the normal flow of time, now normally this wouldn't last all that long but inside of her own demi-plane which does not have a flow of time in the first place, it will last indefinitely as does any spell in here. Mind you if she had no way of ending this spell she would be stuck in this state for the rest of her life. But since she does she can save herself twelve hours of the day. While it isn't like she is pressed for time all that much, it would be good to get this thing done as soon as possible. After all the workers want to do some working soon.

 _'Here we go again, feels somewhat weird to be the only thing moving for such a long time but whatever.'_ As she says that she lays about the ruby dust she already has, in neat piles around herself in preparation for what she is about to do.

"Alright, first off. **'Bulls Strength'** " Using her shirt to cast the spell from its formula her muscles bulge momentarily before seemingly going back to normal. Now she cant use this strength she just gained in blood money, but she doesn't intend to anyways, it is merely so that she does not feel as much like a immobile piece of flesh as she would had she not done this.

 **'Blood money: Simulacrum'** as she casts the first spell the dust she already has is joined by even more dust. Normally materials created by blood money would turn back into blood after a few seconds of not being used, making it useless for spells such as this. But since time is currently of no issue she has all the time she could ever want.

Other than the rubies a giant mass of ice and snow forms in front of Raskreia right next to the rubies.

 _'Well, time for art'_ as she says that she move up to the mass of ice.

Twelve hours later (not one second later for anyone else)

Kwalin is still standing there not having moved a muscle, before his friend casts her time stop he has been thinking _'Tongs and hammers! This woman doesn't know how to go easy on herself does she? She was like this since we met and back then she wasn't even an adult as far as elves are concerned.'_

He looks her over for a moment as she is checking if everything is here that she could possibly need.

 _'She hasn't changed a bit has she? I have aged, Zarhon has aged, Thorgal… well he has his cloak of immortality so no he has not aged. Her? She hasn't aged a day. If I didn't know she had a clone of me and the others somewhere in this plane I would almost be a bit jealous."_

He just barely withholds a laugh that is threatening to come out. _'Torag's beard! What am I thinking? Being jealous of her? She would share anything of hers with us, she has literally jumped in front of a gun the first day we met to save my life.'_

Before he can think further Raskreia turns towards him, smiles, and starts casting a spell he has seen her cast quite a few times before. And the next moment he is standing in the presence of not only his friend but also a copper dragon which is at the very least three times as large as him, in height alone.

If he didn't know it was a simulacrum he would have been intimidated by the things presence, if only slightly. As it was he just walks briskly over to his friend who seems close to collapsing and casts a **'Heal'** on her instantly restoring colour to her skin.

 _"Thanks! I really needed that actually."_ She once more smiles at him and he has the feeling that she has the urge to pat his head, and is rather happy about the fact she chose not to.

 _"That was the sole reason you called me over in the first place, so no thanks are necessary. Though they are welcome. Now can I go back to my forge?"_ To which the dragoness just pouts, an expression that makes the newly created dragon snicker.

Raskreia turns towards her creation and glares at it making it shut up _"Sure. Just a moment_ **'Invisibility'** _there, and now_ **'Gate'** " after casting her two spells the dragon vanishes from sight and a portal opens, on the other side one can see once more the back of Kwalin's forge.

 _"You know that you will have to move that portal in the back of my store eventually? It cant stay there."_ As they pass the portal they can hear the relatively light footfalls of the dragon following them behind them.

 _"I know I know, I will find a better place soon."_

* * *

Border between Tristain and Germania

* * *

Joshua, or simply Josh, was contemplating his recent lot in life as he is standing together with his colleagues in front of a large tent trying to communicate with a pair of short an stocky people.

He was just a simple man who had taken up the work of a guard after having decided that being a farmer is not something for him and that he would love to see the world a bit more.

To bad for him tat he didn't realize at the time that being a guard usually doesn't let one travel around all that much, he should have become a mercenary if he wanted such.

To top this mental failure of his he has ended up in the service of one count Mott, and Josh will be the first to tell you that Mott is not the best employer one could be asking for, not by a long shot.

But it was work and it's the only work as a guard he could find at the time and at least he got paid, even if his employer was a right arse.

Then one day the count goes travelling towards the, relatively, nearby academy and of course he needs some guards to come with him. Which much to his elation included himself and Timothy, or Tim.

Once he got there he wasn't as elated anymore however as the purpose of the counts visit is one which gives him and his friends allot of dislike for the count. He was going there to acquire a new maid for himself, a young lass by the name Siesta if had heard correctly. A fine young girl, and soon to be a fine young woman if he were to be the judge of it. And such a waste on the damnable count. But, alas, they were commoners and as such couldn't voice their complaints without repercussion.

And suddenly cat.

That's the sum total of the thought process of Josh as the biggest feline he has ever seen quite literally pounces on the count. True, he deserves it but they are still employed as his guards so they do a token effort of trying to convince the cat to get of the man.

Something they give up, not reluctantly in the least, once the cat moves her jaw threateningly over the counts jugular with every small movement they make.

Five minutes later the headmaster of the place shows up with one of his professors and Josh thinks this will soon be resolved and everything will be proceeding as is normal once more.

Then he sees the woman who is, unbeknownst to him, going to soon be his new employer.

From there it rapidly pans out and the count and the tow of them are to fight this woman and her cat. Which as it turns out is not as easy as one might have expected. The cat became incredibly fast and the last thing he saw before falling into unconsciousness was white fur slamming into him.

A few moments later he woke up once more, lying right next to the thing which knocked him unconscious in the first place and Tim. He woke up just in time to see the end of the events taking place.

Well long story short he is now employed to the same woman he has fought back then.

And so far, which isn't saying all that much admittedly as it hasn't been all that long yet, she is a much more likable employer than Mott. First thing she did was admit that she didn't really need work right now so she gave them all a paid vacation until she gets something set up.

Which is why he is now here, in the middle of bumfuck nowhere in front of a tent and trying to communicate with a broad midget who doesn't understand his Language.

Him and Tim had been among the first few to arrive here after messages had been sent out to come to the location indicated as work would soon be provided.

Well, he might just have made a mistake in changing employers as at the moment it seems like they will be guarding a tent, next to a dirt path leading through what might as well be a marsh.

But oh well, humans are adaptable and so will he be.

Just as he is about to give up communicating with this person in front of him, who has been rather insistent on something, which sadly includes them entering the tent, when yet another midget, as he has been silently calling them in his head, comes out of the tent.

This one wearing some rather comfortable looking clothes rather than the chain the outside two had been wearing. This new one looks much younger than the first two, judging by the short length of his beard at the very least.

After a few exchanged words between midgets the tent guards step out of the way, evidently allowing them access.

The younger midget turns then towards them giving them a once over, before thankfully speaking in a language they can understand.

"Ah, you must be the people Raskreia has hired previously. My name is Kloin, and I am, or will be, in charger of the operation here. At least once it begins in the first place."

Josh, who had been elected as the spokesperson of the four who have already arrived, steps up "You are in charge? Is there anything we can do for now?" while a bit strange that there is someone other than Raskreia in charge right now Josh sees no reason for deceit here. After all who would settle down out here AND know of them and their employer.

"For right now, not really, we are just waiting for Raskreia to show up which should be in an hour or two from now. So I suppose, find a dry spot and make yourselves comfortable, if you want you could even join us at the table." And with that Kloin headed of to said table, which he now noticed is stocked with drinks and meat.

Shrugging towards his other guards he walks over to said table and sits down next to yet another midget where there is a chair free. Something his friends emulate.

One additional thing he notices, that he hasn't before, is oval hole hovering mid air at the back of the tent, but he then decides to just shrug it off as "Magic".

They sit there at that table for a good hour, in the meantime two more of their number have arrived and sat themselves at the table. He was a bit surprised at the amount of alcohol these midgets seem to be able to stomach without it affecting them in the slightest. Especially considering that he was already feeling slightly tipsy from these drinks after only one flagon. Admittedly the drink was exceptionally good

Deciding that it would not do to get drunk before meeting his employer he politely asks Kloin, as the only person here to understand them, if they could have something with lighter to drink. To which he simply nodded and went over to where the drinks were kept to bring back a large pitcher of what could possibly be wine. One of the other midgets looked at the container dubiously and said something towards Kloin in their guttural language and after Kloin replied in kind the other midgets snorted in what he might interpret as amusement.

A bit put off by the fact that they seemingly had no water to serve he poured himself some of the, he is assuming, wine and takes a sip. Josh does not know much about wine, or anything at all really, but he would say with confidence that just like the drink earlier that this wine would be suitable even for the local nobles overly sensitive taste buds.

Approximately ten minutes after the hour mark they start hearing someone or something approach from somewhere in the tent, something big in fact.

He notices the midgets, all start looking towards where he had seen the oval hole in the air and he turns to look as well. Then he feels his jaw go slack. There standing next to his new employer was a rather large dragon with pure copper scales, in fact he could almost see them glimmer and shine in the light of the tent.

What was even more perplexing is the fact that the dragon seems to be talking to Raskreia, and Judging by the fact that she was laughing with almost every word that is being said it is quite humorous.

Perhaps it is one of the legendary Rhyme dragons he has heard of in stories. But aren't those supposed to be extinct?

Well his employer certainly got a whole lot more interesting just now.

After a few words in that strange language these midgets seem to be speaking in are exchanged between the dragon, Kloin and Raskreia pretty much everyone that is not native to these lands stands up, if they haven't been standing already, and goes to exit the tent.

Reading the mood Josh and his compatriots also stand up, a bit reluctantly as the food was actually rather good, to follow. And Josh walks up to Raskreia who just now seems to have noticed them in the first place.

She fully turns to face him and gives them a collective smile seemingly contend with the fact that they are there in the first place. The dragon takes to the air with Kloin seemingly directing it places, for what purpose is not yet clear.

"Ah, you are here. I hope you didn't have to wait for me too long." Their employers voice drags them out of the gawping at the magnificent sight of a shining copper scaled dragon flying in the full light of a shining morning sun. "I still had something to do before I could come here. I know it isn't very impressive yet, but that will soon change with the help on my reptilian friend up in the sky."

"No you have not made us wait long, and even if it wouldn't have been much of a problem Mi Lady." He quickly reaffirms her, true she had them wait but it was really not that long at all and food was even provided. Then he remembered that she didn't want to be called lady "I mean Ms. Raskreia."

If she was bothered at all by his minor slip he could certainly not tell, but he was sure she wouldn't punish him for something so minor in either case.

"Well, that's good. Do any of you have any questions?" she said looking at all of them. At first no one spoke but then Tim stepped forward a bit hesitantly but Raskreia just smiled encouragingly at him which made him more sure of the fact that he was allowed to speak.

"Well, Ms. if it isn't too much to ask, how is that dragon going to help with setting things up here, and also what is whit all the… how do I put this… short people?" To Josh's silent amusement these questions, rather than offend Raskreia as it might have done for Mott, seemed to just amuse her.

"Well…" Tim quickly introduced himself after a short pause. "Tim, the first question should answer itself rather quickly. As for the other question, well they are Dwarves. As in not human. I am not sure how much people in these lands know of dwarves but back home they are known as great merchants, craftsmen and warriors. Oh and their booze is some of the best out there, even if I cant really handle it all that well."

His, and his friends, mouth was slack. DWARVES? They were just children's tales were they not? Wait no, true tales don't always say the whole story but they often have a grain of truth behind them. Its not like they know the whole world, only yesterday he would have told anyone who claimed to have seen a talking dragon that he is a fool.

Elves exist, what is to say Dwarves don't? This job is looking more and more exciting by the minute, he already got to drink some of the best drink he has ever tasted, his belly is full, and he has seen two supposedly legendary species. The fact that his new employer is nice to look at and has a pleasant personality is also an added bonus over his last employer.

The rest of his friends, emboldened by the fact that Raskreia had not been annoyed in the least by them asking things, decided to ask some other minor questions of their own. Such as how often they would be able to visit family, where they would sleep, and such.

Raskreia answered everything patiently, but she did answer everything concerning this place with "Ask Kloin" or "I don't know, Kloin made the blueprints" and variations thereof

Josh in the meantime was observing the aforementioned Dwarf and the dragon. Kloin seems to be directing a few of the other dwarves as well as the dragon to do something.

The dragon would call something down to Kloin, who would then look down at the papers in his hands and then direct a few other Dwarves each holding a number of small flags. Those flags would be placed at different places into the mud or earth. This process would repeat until they had made a rather large circle around the tent.

Josh then noticed that the circle of flags was a few dozen meters away from the bottom of the hill the tent was positioned on. Perhaps they plan to erect a wall there? But all that was around was mud and earth, what would they use as a wall? Sure Earth mages could make walls but that would still take quite a bit of time at this size that they had planned. Not to mention the entirety of the ground was still unstable swamplands. It would probably take weeks to set anything worthwhile up.

By now his friends have finished asking everything they wanted to ask and were too watching the proceedings.

At this time Kloin was once more calling something up to the dragon who, Josh would swear, nodded and flew to one point where flags have been placed. He could see the dragon seemingly concentrate intently on the ground for a moment, he was then astounded to see the mud in quite a stretch turn into what can only be solid stone.

The dragon once more seemed to be deeply concentrating a ten foot tall and maybe thirty foot long wall of solid stone appeared out of nowhere. It wasn't very thick from what he could tell but it was solid. And it just appeared. It didn't shoot out of the ground, or gradually grew from nothing. No one moment it wasn't there the next it was.

Before Josh or any one of his friends could really contemplate the significance of what they had just seen, the wall doubled in thickness, and then yet again added the same amount in thickness. This repeated quite a number of times, and now there was a thirty foot long, twenty foot tall and twelve foot thick stretch of wall. Even a parapet was already in place.

He was once more pulled out of his amazement at the speed at which a wall of such, rather considerable might, is being build by not a mage, and even a mage would not be able to build something like this THIS quickly, but a dragon of all things. He turns towards what has focused him once more an it is his new employer tapping him on the shoulder.

"I'm sorry I don't think we have been introduced yet." She would say.

Josh takes a quick breath to make sure that he is as composed as he can be, and standing as presentably as possible. And judging by the approving look in the woman's eyes he cant be doing so poorly.

"My apologies, my name is Joshua. May I say that you have a most spectacular familiar there." He says indicating the dragon.

She looks confused for a moment, much to his shared confusion. But then her eyes light up with mirth. "Oh, why thank you but that dragon is not my familiar, I don't even have one to be precise. I have created that dragon earlier today using another dragon I had met during my travels as inspiration, but I am glad you like him."

Josh is proud to say that he has managed to not look slack jawed as he said "You created… a dragon?" Considering that all the others are still watching the giant reptile fly around creating walls he was the only one who heard her speak at all, and if he tells them this they will most likely think him daft. But wow, just wow. He looked at the woman in front of him in new appreciation.

She didn't brag about this, she didn't even tell them until the subject of the matter was addressed by him in the first place. Mott, had he been able to do this, would have rubbed this into their faces as much as he possibly could. Her? She just offhandedly mentioned it as part of the admittance that it wasn't her familiar.

"Yes I did, but to be fair it is a pale shadow compared to the original, whom I based him off. But as you can see he can still perform the task of a builder quite splendidly. But that wasn't what I wanted to talk about." She looks over at the rest of his friends who are still not paying attention to her or anything she is saying. He quickly fixes this by punching Tim in the shoulder which gets his and everyone else's attention. Tim was about to say something when he notices why he had done so and shuts his mouth before it is even properly open.

Raskreia for her part gives him a nod of thanks before turning to address them as a whole.

"I apologize for not being able to welcome you properly, but I will do so now. Welcome to the as of yet unnamed trading you shall be working at for as long as you are willing." She motions to the area around herself "I know it isn't much at the moment but as you can see, we are working on it. Kloin will be the one in charge for the most part, and he will give you the tasks he thinks need performing. As such listen to anything he says as if it had been me who said it." She stops here for a moment to see if anyone had any objections to what had been said so far, which there was none.

"Just a few ground rules though. First, and I don't think I need to really mention this in the first place, don't make the dragon angry. Honestly I don't know why anyone would do that as it just seems like a stupid think to do all around but I have been told by a friend I should say it anyways as he had one of his workers melted while working close to a dragon whom said worker consequently pissed off." Some people chuckled at this though they stop once they realize she was being serious. "Mind you this rule doesn't mean you should avoid him, I'm sure you will find that he makes for quite good conversation. But just remember that he is a giant reptile that can bite you in half if sufficiently annoyed."

Josh made it a point to go talk to this dragon once he had the chance. If Raskreia said he would make for good conversation it must be true to some extent. Though he also makes sure to make it a point to be polite while doing so.

"And second, I am sure you have seen the portal in the tent. Err the oval hole floating in the middle of the air, if any one of you want to go through there talk it over with Kloin first as id rather not have you stumbling along on the other side alone without anyone guiding you. Mainly as no one on the other side would be able to understand a word you said."

They all nodded in acceptance, though some were curious of where that portal might lead. Though not curious enough to just go wandering through on their own, they might in doing so offend someone like Raskreia for example.

After a few moments of letting them murmur among themselves Raskreia continues on with what she wanted to say "Now that we got that out of the way. You should go talk to Kloin at some point in the next hour or so if you have any special requests about your living arrangements. I am sure he already has a rough draft for your barracks set up but if you want to change anything about it, you should do it before the actual building is in place."

Josh was confused about something so he voiced said confusion "Wait, you are saying this place will be done today?"

Raskreia laughed lightly "No of course not. The rough work, the walls and such will probably done by the end of the day, but that is all. Anything made of wood, such as the Inn I was planning to have erected, should take a bit longer. But that is not to say that will take too long." She looks around the area for a moment before fixing her gaze on something in the distance. "Alright, I gotta head off now. After you talked to Kloin about anything you would perhaps want added just do what guards do I suppose, meaning make sure that nothing disturbs the workers." As she says that she moves away from them towards some of the dwarves mulling over some papers.

Josh takes that as his cue to move too "Alright lads, you heard the lady, does anyone want to add something to the place in the plans or are we going to trust that they will provide all that we need?" the others looked uncertain for a bit but decided that they didn't know anything about planning in the first place and to just leave that to those who have more experience in these matters.

The rest of the day was rather uneventful in comparison to how it began to Josh. The rest of the men that were due to arrive did so one by one and were each regaled with the news of what will be going on from now on. Most were understandably awed by the dragon quite literally thinking walls and rock formations into existence but soon got over the novelty of it.

By now they were no longer standing on muddy marsh ground and instead they are standing on top of a solid surface of stone which the dragon had created. It had left large areas as they were for reasons they didn't know, probably so the inside of the place wasn't just a slab of rock.

By the end of the day they were surrounded on all sides by walls and the dragon and dwarves have actually started on forming a small gatehouse. At the rate they are building it, it should have its skeleton structure done by tomorrow at noon, as there was actually a lot thinks to consider doing with it. Josh is wondering what they will use for the actual gate.

They have also been provided with a walled in section with a ceiling that might at some point become a barracks. But for now is mostly a hollow stone area.

Well, Raskreia did say that small scale work would take a while longer. The food was nice though and so was the drink. No complaints here.

Josh can't help but wonder what the coming weeks will bring, certainly this place is more lively than Mott's estate ever was.

* * *

Raskreia's demi-plane

* * *

Late in the evening Raskreia had come back from the construction site that will soon be able to call itself a trading post. She had spent most of the day going over everything that needs to be done over there. She is rather happy about how much has already changed over there. Solid walls a half finished gatehouse (sans gate), solid foundations for future buildings and the skeleton structure of what will at one point be the barracks.

Not being really tired at the moment she decides to do something she had wanted to do badly since she had first encountered this. She was going to study the two remaining artifacts she has acquired.

She has the veritable armada of unseen servants that occupy her plane move the cauldron towards her small personal library. There she places all three items onto a large stone desk that they already share with another artifact, the one she has gotten a long time ago during her hunt for Tom. The book of infinite spells, sadly well over half of the spells contained within are already used up, in fact she doubts there is more than four more spells in the book before it vanishes to find a new user. Sadly the page turned away from the last spell page that she had, which was a true resurrection, now it is a pitiful acid splash. She decided to not turn the page as she had found it humorous to leave it at this spell.

Laying down the staff next to the book she goes to identify the remaining two items.

But not before pocketing two books on enchanting and magical item crafting.

Turns out it isn't as easy to do as she first expected, she had to cross-reference multiple books and sources. Six hours in and she wasn't a single step closer to identifying the hourglass.

The cauldron however…

She is actually somewhat disgusted at having the thing in her home.

At first she had thought it to be some sort of powerful witches cauldron, perhaps even something from Baba Yaga. But no, after going through a good dozen more books she has finally found the origin of the runic design. Runelords.

This was a gods damn runeslave cauldron, albeit one that was specifically made to be used on humanoids rather than giants, if the size of the thing was in any way shape or form an indication at least.

Now what. What in the world was she to do with a runeslave cauldron. Nothing that's what, actually scratch that she will ask her father if he would be willing to sit on the thing, figuratively speaking of course.

She quickly goes through one or two spell books she had acquired over her adventure, mostly from enemy wizards, and picks out a spell that she needs. _**"AHA! I should probably carry this spell on me… oh well"**_ she activates he shirt beneath her robes which surges with the arcane allowing her to cast from merely holding a spell formula using her own reserves.

 **'Sending'** _ **"Greetings father, I would need to talk to you in person, may I come?"**_

A few seconds pass in which she fears that the spell might have actually failed to penetrate the dimensional barriers when she gets a reply _**"Certainly, though I do wonder what it is you need to speak to me about."**_

Reverting herself back to her natural appearance, and making herself as presentable as possible she casts a **'Gate'** and steps through dragging the cursed cauldron with her.

* * *

Somewhere on Golarion.

* * *

Raskreia steps out of the portal onto a large balcony. This balcony however isn't outside however as one might think, no it is overlooking a truly gigantic cavern below. Not that one can even tell its size as there isn't all that much light in the cavern at all.

The Balcony in contrast is very well lit, probably to highlight anyone standing on top of it.

The balcony has a red carpet running along it leading somewhere away from the cavern.

Raskreia knows that this leads to her fathers living area. In the moment she has looked at the hallway behind her she feels an almighty rush of air coming from the cavern and the momentary beating of wings. By the time she turns back around there standing barely ten feet away from here is a absolutely majestic looking man.

Majestic almost does the man no justice clothes that many a king would murder his first born son for, a natural crown of seemingly pure gold horns atop his head splitting his silvery golden hair, massive leathern wing covered in yet more golden scales and jewellery, and she can just barely see the tip of his tail swaying idly behind him.

Overall he somewhat looks like a more regal male Raskreia.

Raskreia quickly walks closer to the man but stops at about five feet _**"Father, I apologize for coming here on such short notice. But it IS good to see you."**_

This was Raskreia's father Arzirius, now it might be strange for people that know that Raskreia doesn't particularly likes her mother that she is on good terms with her father. This however comes from the fact that her father wasn't at any point for the decision of her mother to have her raised by adoptive parents, he would have personally loved to dote on another child.

Not to mention he had been closer to Raskreia for most of her travels than she had initially realized.

 _ **"It is good to see you as well child, you wanted to speak to me in person and here I am."**_

Something that DOES agitate Raskreia is the fact that no matter how much she has adventured after having first met her father, and even though she is over a hundred and fifty years old now she cant help but feel like a child in her fathers presence.

 _ **"Well you see, the situation is as follows…"**_

* * *

Tristania

* * *

Louise is seething inwardly. No! seething is something she had been doing hours ago, now she was boiling over.

Her damnable familiar has vanished after having left the ball with Kirche of all people. She asked Kirche where Raskreia was but was told that she had left just after sunrise.

Tabitha had said that she had left through one of those portal she likes to create but beyond that she didn't know where she was currently.

To add insult to injury the princess requested her presence. Of course she answered the summons the very moment she had gotten them. Turns out the princess wanted to send her on a special mission which involved her going under cover and investigating weather or not nobles might be abusing their power upon the commoners.

Which of course she accepted and this leads us to the current situation where she had lost all of her funds provided by Henrietta and is now working at a inn that would be right at home in the red-light district.

She was currently shouting at a patron that decided it was a good idea to grab at her bum, which he was now regretting ever doing.

All in all she wished her familiar was here to share in her pain, but Louise had a feeling that that woman wouldn't really mind being in such a locale as this.

* * *

Albion

* * *

The floating island of Albion once was a shining example of the nobility of these lands, they were everything that all nobles aspired to be to some degree. Which is precisely the reason why enticing a rebellion here was rather easy.

At least this is what Cromwell is thinking as yet another settlement falls under his banner. Though it certainly helps to have a powerful magical treasure on ones side.

Soon Albion will be his and then they shall start unifying the land so that they may retake the holy lands from the elves. This is Cromwell's dream, and he will see it fulfilled even if he has to climb over a mountain of corpses to do so.

He might even become the Brimir of this era.

AN: AND BOOM! another chapter out, I AM NOT DEAD! I know, i know. you will get over it. Well i hope you liked this chapter and stay tuned for how it goes on.


	15. Chapter 15

"Speech: Halkeginian"

 _'Thoughts/telepathy'_

 **'Spells and the like'**

 _"Speech: Common/Dwarven"_

 _ **"Speech: Draconic"**_

* * *

TAoM

* * *

Raskreia walks right out of a tear in reality, back into the place she had left at, unsurprisingly no one was still here. She orientates herself for a moment before striding of into the direction of the academy. _'Why am I even staying there still? Meh, got some good amusement out of that place so far might as well see what else might happen.'_

Beneath her arms she is carrying a rather large. Hopefully the young mage was smart enough to manage to translate it, otherwise she will have to teach her draconic, or just cast comprehend languages on her.

As she walks she thinks back on how well the meeting with her father went. Thankfully it went as well as she had hoped it would, and her father had agreed to safekeeping the artifact, albeit a bit reluctantly at first. He was mostly a bit surprised at the fact that she had found an object such as this in the first place.

Their discussion also led to her asking about the small hourglass but even Arzirius didn't know anything about this artifact. But he did say that he has heard that an artifact in the shape like this did indeed exist, just not its name nor its purpose.

Oh well, she had the damnable cauldron off her hands and that was good, she did not want that anywhere near her. And as a small bonus she spend the rest of the day in at her fathers home, there is something beautiful about the lair of such an ancient dragon.

 _'Anyways, back to the matter at hand. What time is it?'_

Judging by the position of the sun in the sky it must be around time for breakfast so Raskreia makes her way over to where the dining hall is. She hasn't been there all that much since she has arrived in this land. Only twice, once at the very beginning and the second time during the ball. But it should be the most likely place to find the person she is looking for right now.

The walk towards the dining hall is rather short and the doors are already open allowing Rask to see that it is in fact filled with students, more importantly the students she was looking for are there too. Well minus one that is.

Walking into the hall, ignoring the short stop in conversation at her appearance she walks on over to where Tabitha and Kirche are currently sitting next to a few other girls and some boys.

Raskreia is happy to note that one of the girls she does not know the name of does make some room for her to sit on, which she gladly does.

As she sits down she plonks the tome she had been carrying with her onto the table under the curious gaze of the students surrounding her.

Judging by the brief glimmer of excitement that she caught in Tabitha's eyes she knows what this book must be about.

"Just what is that, other than a book of course?" this was Kirche who was curiously lifting a few pages of the book to try and see for herself what it was about, to no avail. "What language is this in I cant even decipher the letters?"

"That's a language from my home, a lot of magic texts are written in it. The language is Draconic while the script itself is called Iokharic. And because I can already see you questions coming, the things you call dragons over here would be categorized as drakes in my home, while true dragons are not just dumb beasts but rather hyper intelligent near immortal reptiles."

"Wait you are saying where you come from you still have rhyme dragons?" this question came from a boy Raskreia doesn't know.

"Yes and no, I'm not sure what qualifies here as a rhyme dragon but true dragons are quite diverse where I'm from. True dragons, or Darastrixi, come quite a few categories which contain a number of sub-categories. The main categories are: Metallic, Chromatic, Imperial, Primal, Esoteric and Outer dragons. To name an example for each one category in order: Gold, White, Sky, Umbral, Nightmare and Time." Raskreia really liked talking about dragons, it was rather fun for her to research her ancestors back when she tried to find a way to awaken her half-dragon blood.

Kirche raised an eyebrow at that "Nightmare? Time? What kind of dragons are those?"

Raskreia looked over at the redhead "Short answer? Powerful ones. Nightmare dragons can enter peoples dreams and form them to their own liking. They feed of the fear they inflict, and can kill you in your own dreams. They also often collect the souls of those they slay. All in all not a nice customer." Judging by the pale faces of her small audience they agree. "Time dragons on the other hand are quite neutral, they don't go out of their way to kill people, and I even had the pleasure of having a conversation with one at one point. They are also truly immortal due to their ability to control and alter time itself. I have heard that those of their species that have grown into mastery of their own abilities can even travel through time, but I cant say if that is true or not."

A girl with some form of drill shaped hair voiced her disbelief at this "You had a conversation with something like that? How did you know it wouldn't try to eat you?"

"Well, it really depends on what dragon we are talking about but you can peacefully talk with almost any type dragon from my lands. Good dragons wont just eat a sentient creature for no reason, you'd have to seriously anger it first. Evil dragons on the other hand will often kill mortals for no reason other than their own amusement. But there are exceptions, mostly when they want something from you for example. Neutral dragons are a lot like good dragons in this regard. You have to remember they are intelligent beings, and like all intelligent beings they can be reasoned with to some degree."

Kirche speaks up once more "So you are saying they are basically like big scaly people. Just like there are good and bad people there is good and bad dragons. And your likelihood of getting killed by one is dependant on them being a good person or a bad person that wants you dead?"

Raskreia happily nods at that prompting Kirche to continue "But how can you tell whether or not a dragon would like to eat you or talk to you before it is to late."

"This is actually rather simple, and it is also the source of quite a few jokes, they are colour coded." At the confused looks she received due to the statement she continues "Its like this, Darastrixi are born with a set of hereditary memories. As soon as they hatch they know how to speak, how to write, often at least basic math, how to fly, walk and all that. But more importantly for this conversation they also gain the same sense of morals as their parents. This lead to, for example, most if not all metallic dragons to be good, and chromatic's to be evil. So if you can identify the species of dragon you are dealing with you can pretty safely assume what its response to you will be."

Now the people listening to her are looking rather amazed, and Kirche is the one to break the silence "Are you saying, that dragons in your land are BORN knowing all of that. ALL OF THEM?!"

"Basically, yes." Raskreia finishes with a smile. "anyways, you can have this book for now Tabitha, id like to have it back eventually but you can take your time translating it. If you need any help doing so just ask." To which the blue haired mage nods.

Kirche once more speaks up "You still haven't told us what the book is about in the first place." This she punctuates with a pout.

"Oh its about enchanting, and magical item crafting." Now every student that heard that was looking at the book with interest once more.

And Guiche who had been silent up until now speaks "That entire monster of a book is on enchanting?"

To which Raskreia grins "Yep!" popping the p at the end "And that is just the basic principles rules and methods used for magical crafting. Soo basically a beginners book, it's the one I used back in the day when I wanted to learn how to craft magical items."

Raskreia would lie if she said she didn't find the hungry gleam in Tabitha's eyes amusing.

Raskreia chuckles a bit at their flabbergasted expressions before speaking once more.

"Anyways, I wanted to ask if and when you had some form of academic break."

The people not all that acquainted with Raskreia tune out at this point restarting conversation with one another.

It is Kirche once more that answers. "This is actually the last week of this school year believe it or not. Then we are on summer break. Why, you had something in mind?"

The half-dragon smiles happily at the information "Yes I did in fact have something in mind. I was planning on going on a small adventure back in my home, due to reasons. I was going to ask if you Tabitha and perhaps Louise would like to come with."

To say that Kirche looked excited would be an understatement she looked positively giddy "I would most certainly love to go." Then she deflated in realization of something "But I already promised Tabi to go visit her home during summer."

Raskreia looked a bit disappointed at this as well as she looked over to Tabitha "Oh, so you want to go home over the break?" Tabitha nodded in answer. "Hmm… what if I promised that you could return before your break was over?"

Tabitha seemed to contemplate that for a moment, while she wanted to see her mother once more she also wanted to see the world Raskreia kept talking about, and who knows how often she might get the chance to do that in her life. "Acceptable" is what she finally said gaining a hug from her redheaded friend and a happy smile from Raskreia.

"Great, just to remind you, we will be going through wilderness. So pack light, and things suitable for travel. Oh and don't bother bringing horses. I will bring the travelling equipment so don't worry about that. By the way, where is Louise?"

Guiche must have heard her question because he briefly interrupts his conversation with the blonde girl he had been chatting with to answer "Oh her? She has left for the capital, why I don't know."

"Alright, if she is back by the end of the week I will ask her if she wants to join, if not we will go on our own. Does that sound good?" Kirche and Tabitha voiced their consent to the idea.

Guiche however has not yet left the conversation "Miss Raskreia?" she nods in indication that he has her attention. "I understand that you want to go on a field trip to your home at the end of the week." At her nod of confirmation and confused look he continues "Would it be in the realm of possibility for me to join you in this?"

Raskreia figured this was where he was getting at, she does not however know what to think of it. "And why do you want to do so?"

He looks a bit uncertain but still trudges on "You see after you have so thoroughly defeated me I wondered how or why you have honed your magic in such a way. I came to the conclusion that you are either a soldier, or that you regularly, for whatever reason, face exceedingly dangerous situations. And you do not hold yourself like a soldier."

He takes a breath for a moment before looking Raskreia directly in the eyes "And it is my belief that if I were to join you in this I could only have to gain and nothing to lose. I have taken it as my goal in life to become a mage that is at the very least equal to you."

Raskreia keeps looking into his eyes for a moment before she, without breaking eye contact, states "Alright, you can come, but the moment you start whining about anything you are out. Got it?"

He looks on in triumph "Of course not, a Gramont never whines!"

Raskreia chuckles a bit "Hah, we'll see about that." She then takes a moment to think on something before smirking "I just realized that if Louise comes too then you have a full party."

Tabitha for a moment takes her eyes off of the book in front of her "Full party?"

To which the woman rubs the back of her head apologetically "Ah, sorry. Back in my home the most standard size for a travelling group adventurers is four. Its how I travelled around for a long time, me and three friends."

"What if Louise doesn't show up? We would just be three, not counting you or Felniir." Kirche asked.

"Three man parties are common enough. And don't worry, its not like I'm not there, and Felniir is there too." She punctuated that by standing up. "Anyways, I will be getting everything in order. Pack two sets of travelling clothes, and something warm. You wont need anything else."

* * *

Three days later

* * *

Raskreia finished packing what she wanted to bring along the day before, and she had spent the day before that mostly relaxing and talking Kirche and Tabitha, well in the case of the latter it meant that she was mostly just explaining details contained within the book that she had leant her.

Turns out this land also had a translation spell but it is actually permanent, as rather than translate the words being said it confers the knowledge of the entire language directly. Of course Raskreia wanted to know this spell as that was somewhat useful to people in her land as that would drastically reduce language barriers.

To Raskreia's dismay people here didn't use spell formulas so learning the spell would be rather difficult but she is determined to make a formula for this spell anyways.

Back to the matter at hand however, Raskreia had to correct Kirche's choice of things she wanted to bring during this excursion multiple times. She wanted to bring too many clothes, many of which would be more too hindering for the hinterlands she was planning on visiting.

Tabitha on the other hand seemingly knew what she should take with her and what she should leave behind. This makes Rask actually rather happy as she wont be the only one experienced with travelling through the wilderness.

Surprisingly enough Guiche packed too little, apparently he was so afraid of bringing too much that he only packed a single spare pair of clothes.

Raskreia for her part packed only few additional things that she didn't already have on her when she first got here. This is because of her sleeves which function like Sleeves of many garments she doesn't need to carry any clothes.

As for the things she is bringing with her now, those are bedrolls, a map, a special cauldron she has crafted in her early days of adventuring that functions like the conjure food and water spell up to twice per day, but rather than create finished food it conjures only the ingredients, and a small marble which can be used once per day to cast a tiny hut spell.

 _'This should make it comfortable enough for them.'_ At least that is what Raskreia is hoping.

Louise has yet to show up from her visit to the capital, and Raskreia did not really see much reason to specifically seek her out, so it is understandable that the five of them are just now gathering at the front of the academy building and checking whether or not they have got everything they want to take with them.

It is then that Guiche brings up something that he had been wondering for a while now.

"I was wondering Ms. Raskreia, but can we bring our familiars with us? I mean you are bringing Felniir."

Rask on her part does some quick mental math but the result isn't all that positive.

"Well Sylphid can come as she can just fly overhead if Tabitha wants to bring her, I know for a fact that Flame wont fit as he is, and same goes for your mole… That said, if you were willing I could shrink them to a more manageable size if you really want to bring them."

Both Kirche and Guiche look hopeful at the prospect of being able to bring their familiars with them. Though Kirche has something to add "Uhm, shrinking them wont be permanent will it?"

To which Raskreia does a small grimace "Well, it IS permanent but it is reversible, which I can do." To which the two who this concerns nod. And after a few moments of getting their familiars in place, and explaining to them what is about to be done to them Raskreia shrinks both of them by applying a Polymorph: any object to them. Now both Verdandi and Flame are the size of a small dog.

Just as Raskreia was about to cast the Gate spell for them to leave they hear a shrill voice that unmistakably belongs to someone familiar to all of them.

"FAMILIAR! Where have you been!?" they all turn towards the gate of the academy to see a mounted, and fuming, pink haired pintsized mage.

"How could you just leave like that Raskreia, you are supposed to assist me in things as a familiar and not just up and disappear."

Louise has by now dismounted and is standing imperiously in front of Raskreia. "I had business to take care of that couldn't really wait." Was the disinterest reply from the dragoness.

Which made Louise only puff up more. "So did I, and you were supposed to be with me."

If she was going to play this game Raskreia could play it just as well if not better "Well, how was I supposed to know that you would be summoned to the capital for whatever reason later during the same day that I went to take care of things on my end? And besides it seems you managed to take care of your end of business just fine."

"That's not the point of this, you are my familiar you are supposed to help me with things like these." As the words left her mouth Louise realized what she had said and to whom she had said them, this was also punctuated by the slight glare being sent her way by the recipient of sentence. "… I'm sorry. I keep forgetting that you have your own life as well. And its not like I didn't manage on my own, even if it would have been easier with you around."

Raskreia immediately stops glaring and instead smiles down at the girl who is now embarrassedly looking down at her feet, reaching over and patting the girl on the head she kneels down a bit to be at the same height as the girl she is talking to. "It alright little Louise, I forgive you. I will admit I'm probably not the best familiar one could get. And I probably wont be there to do as many things as a proper familiar would be. Buuuut you know what I CAN do? I can invite you on a field trip."

"A field trip?" the amount of confusion in the girls voice was frankly quite amusing to Raskreia.

"I need to go back home for a bit to look for some place I can make a secure outpost. And I though I could invite you to come with. Tabitha, Kirche and Guiche are coming."

"Uh, I mean… when were you going?" Louise at the very least seems to be interested.

"Now actually, it seems you already have things packed so there is no reason to delay any further. Just go stable your horse and come back, we will be leaving then." The shock on Louise's face actually doe make Rask consider postponing it a bit but decides not to in the end.

Ten minutes later Louise comes back, visibly out of breath, with just a small pack filled with clothes.

"Right everyone ready?" After getting a chorus of confirmations Raskreia tears open a hole into reality with gate and lets everyone step through before then goes trough herself closing the tear behind her.

* * *

Golarion country of Druma

* * *

As the rather peculiar party exits the momentary laps in the laws of physics they are no longer in the magical academy they had been at for the past few months. They are now on an open road that leads into plains in one direction and a massive mountain range in the other. Towards the mountains the students can see what appear to be massive walls of a city, but more details cannot be discerned due to distance.

"Where are we?" Guiche voices what goes through all of the non-natives minds

"We are currently on the world of Golarion in the country of Druma a bit of a ways east of the city Highhelm." Was the nonchalant answer of Raskreia as she digs out a map of the region to discern where she had planned to go from here.

"I'm sorry did you just say world? You don't actually want me to believe that we are on a different…" his words trail off as he sees Raskreia point upwards and following her finger he sees in the sky something that shocks him more than anything previously ever did… there is but a single, white, moon hanging in the sky soon to descend beyond the horizon. One can also clearly see a massive dark… something on the moon which looks as if the moon had a scar running along it. "…we are on a different world." Guiche trails of by lightly laughing to himself but soon after composes himself.

The others who had already known where the journey would take them, at least vaguely, were less shocked but no less in awe at the fact that they are very likely among the first people from their world who have set foot away from their home planet.

Kirche sidles up to the side of Raskreia to look at the map the woman was studying and there seem to be quite a few countries marked on the massive, not yet fully unfolded, piece of cartography. "This is quite a good map. Where are we?" After Rask points to where they should approximately be Kirche continues. "Question, just out of curiosity, how come that tiny little island in that lake up north from here is worth naming, and more importantly noting on such a map?"

Raskreia looked over to the indicated little dot in the lake and shudders a bit "That's the Isle of Terror, and I hope that that name is enough to dissuade you from wanting to go there."

The non-natives raise their eyebrows a bit at that reaction, and Guiche scoffs "Isle of terror? What fool named it that, how bad can it be?"

Rask just looks in a direction which they can only assume is in the general direction of the lake "A fool who has been there, trust me, the place is bad. True there is worse places out there but that does not make that place any better. Its constantly storming there, its filled with monsters and undead and there are more traps there than you can count."

Guiche does gulp a bit even if he still thinks it to be a exaggeration. "Alright, but where did you plan on going?"

Raskreia looks back on her map, and after a moment she looks back up and points towards the mountain range in the distance but not even near where the city lies. "About a hundred miles that way for starters."

The non-natives jaw drops at that and Louise regains her voice after a moment "A hundred miles? That will take us days with no horses." But before anyone else can voice their dismay Raskreia raises her hand to silence them and starts chanting in a language non but Felniir and Sylphid know, and even then the string of words makes little sense.

After a full ten minutes, in which the halkeginian's are free to look around the place they have found themselves in the spell is finished. And now standing on the road is a large semi-transparent chariot. As weird as the chariot itself is, the team of two that will be pulling it is even more peculiar. It is horses only in the most vague of senses, they are more reptile than horse with deep orange flames, which do not seem to be spreading, coming out of their clawed feet.

"There, one Phantom chariot, this should make the first hundred miles quite quick."

Kirche goes over to touch one of the things pulling the chariot, half expecting to be bit after she sees the fang filled reptilian grin these things posses, but they are completely docile. They do not feel all that unpleasant either, she expected them to be rough and sharp, but their scaly hides are completely smooth.

"What are these things? " she cant help but marvel at these creatures, she would certainly not mind riding one of these.

"Technically? Those are phantom steeds, but the spell lets me design the team that pulls the chariot, and I based it on dragon horses. Beautiful creatures aren't they?"

"They are." Kirche continues to pet the beast which does not seem to be reacting in any way shape or form to her presence of touch.

"Right, everyone into the chariot, I'm driving." After everyone is situated on the back of the chariot with Raskreia in the front, and Sylphid flying overhead Raskreia looks back once more at her passengers who are curiously looking at Felniir who seems to be trying to find something to hold on to. "I am glad you chose the Raskreia Chariot service we will be off momentarily, I advise you to keep any and all things you wish not to lose inside of the vehicle at all times and to hold on tight."

With those last words she whips the reigns once and the horse-like creatures start accelerating… and accelerating… and accelerating. None of the students, except Tabitha, have ever gone this fast before, and the latter only when she rode on Sylphid.

To the vehicles credit the ride was not bumpy in the slightest nor did it make any amount of noise.

After a few moments of adjusting to their new state of affairs the passengers actually start to enjoy the ride. That is until Raskreia starts to steer erratically to avoid obstacles. This is made even worse by that fact that this chariot is perfectly capable of flight, and thereby avoiding any and all land obstacles, not that any of them save for Felniir would know this.

Surprisingly enough however is that they have not really come close to crashing even once, say what you will, Raskreia might not make you FEEL safe while driving but you apparently were safe.

A few minutes later the shrubbery started to die down and there were even less trees around than the few scattered individuals that were there before, and as such the ride became linear and relatively peaceful once more.

No one said anything, instead deciding to enjoy the scenery for the moment. The sky way clear with not a cloud in sight, the only thing up there being Sylphid soaring along with the chariot and a few scattered birds, the air was pleasantly warm indicating that it will become a warm summer day. The pleasant atmosphere is only enhanced due to the total silence the chariot is practically gliding over the ground, because it literally is.

The silence is interrupted however by what sounds like a high pitched horn. At first it was hard to determine the direction said horn blast came from but after a horn sounds twice more from the same general direction it becomes apparent where it come from.

"Is there something out here?" Guiche questions as he and everyone else tries to spot who or what sounded the horn.

Rask wracks her brain trying to remember if she had perhaps forgotten the fact that something was in this region but couldn't come up with anything of real import "No, there shouldn't be anything here worth any note. We should see what is happening over there. If there is any kind of danger don't involve yourselves in it, I don't want you to get injured."

Guiche is about to protest this to clarify that he can fight and that it would be his honour to do so, but the grim expression on Raskreia's face makes him reconsider that, instead he silently decides for himself to help if help is needed by summoning his valkyries.

Changing direction towards where they assume the sound to have come from, the direct route however would take them over several hills. This does not particularly deter Raskreia as she merely orders the pulling team to start ascending, which they do and in mere moments they are soaring over the ground rather than on it.

Louise who is hanging on for dear life now screams over the sound of rushing wind "This cursed thing can fly!?"

Not taking her eyes off of the expanse in front of her Raskreia is scanning the ground below for anything that moves. And there maybe a minute flight away over a couple of hills there is indeed what appear to be two groups, one chasing the other fleeing.

"Found it, over there" she points directly at where she had seen it and everyone briefly looks over the edge of the flying contraption they are convinced should not be able to fly the way it does. And indeed there are a good twenty individuals chasing a smaller group of four. The former of which had mounts that did not appear to be horses.

Raskreia and Felniir can by now tell what they are dealing with here, the former narrows her eyes at the pursuers "Goblins."

Guiche looks quizzically at the woman "Surely you jest. I mean Goblins, aren't they just fairy tales?"

Which just makes the woman scoff at the boy "I'm sure there is plenty of people who would wish for that to be the case, but alas 'tis not so. And unless we have stumbled across the only friendly band of goblins in the land I would say we should help the people running."

By the time they got within range of any spells they could feasibly cast the mounted goblins have already caught up with the fleeing people forcing them to engage in melee. As such this prevents the children from casting anything on them, not so in the case of the goblins on foot still trying to catch up. They are bombarded by a collection of icicles and fire balls courtesy of Tabitha and Kirche.

This Rather effective aerial bombardment would have been made even more effective had the goblins not been spread out erratically, and as such they only take out three and wound another four.

Raskreia wanting to take the heat away from the somewhat desperately fighting group of people, ironically does so by casting a massive torrent of flames into their midst via a **'Chain fire'**

It is a spell everyone presently in the chariot has seen her cast before, it is a spell that has quite literally melted Guiche's golems. However what the children watching this don't quite know is that when someone like Raskreia launches this it is quite capable of instantly melting through say… almost two inches of solid steel. She actually had an opportunity to test this, not that a circular hole the size of a finger had any use being in said sheet of steel.

Point being no one, least of all Raskreia herself had expect a goblin of all things to survive being hit by this. So it comes as quite the surprise when not one, not two but three of the little buggers survive. True it killed three goblins, their mounts, the mounts of all the others, and wounded one other but that is far from the expected result. Two of them having survived by merit of letting their mounts take the hit for them.

Add to that the fact that one survived BEING HIT by the blasted thing, mind you its never going to use that arm properly again in its life. But that is still quite the step up from being a singular mass of charred meat, that those who died have become.

"Those aren't regular goblins, something is up." Raskreia says just loud enough to be heard now that they are slowing down.

"I am taking it them not dying is not normal." She hears Kirche say from over her shoulder as she is looking at where the fire had been only moments ago.

"No, it really isn't. Being able to completely avoid it is one thing, but surviving being hit is another, especially for a goblin. Lets just say you don't want to be hit by that spell, ever."

On the ground meanwhile the group that had been fleeing took the momentary distraction that the goblins suffered as an opportunity to strike them while they lay prone on the ground after their mounts toppled.

And once more, to Raskreia's and Felniir's shock, the tiny bastards manage to hold their own, even while the ones on foot are being picked off one by one by Kirche and Tabitha, and the occasional explosion that meant to be a fireball by Louise. Even Guiche is contributing with half a dozen of his golems which seem a rather good match against these tiny assholes.

Hell, one of the people actually gets taken down by one of the three freaks of nature. But the goblins joy doesn't last long as now that the chariot is as close as it is Felniir jumps out and down right on top of the ones who had avoided the fire.

Now that she is, quite literally, on top of the bastard she noticed one little fact about these goblins… they have wings. Not that those stop the cat from snapping the bastards neck within her jaws, but there is quite a bit more resistance from its skin and bones than she would like to expect from a goblin.

The other two taking offence to one of theirs being taken out by the big creature that fell from the flying box in the sky, abandon their attempts of forced surgery on the poor people they had been chasing and jump the cat.

And they, while not the most dangerous foes by far Felniir had faced, do actually manage to hurt her. One takes a swing with its dogslicer but misses completely and decides it would be best to just take a bite out of this cat, which he does. The other, in a display of surprising cunning for a goblin does NOT attack the angry feline that just bitten one of its friends in half head on. Instead it shanks the tiger in one of her back flanks, cutting relatively deeply into the flesh.

Not wanting her friend to take any more beatings, nor wanting these pests to once more simply avoid what is being thrown at them she throws something at them that cant be avoided. And after a short chant casts **'Boneshatter'** on the till now uninjured one.

Raskreia lifts her hands as if to grasp something and twists, as she does so the air is filled with the sickening sound of a multitude of bones breaking. And those that were currently looking at the fight bellow will see one of the goblins, mid swing, simply stop and start vomiting large amounts of blood from every orifice and then lay still.

Felniir for her part dislodges the reddish-green nuisance clinging to her right forepaw, by smashing said paw goblin first into the ground. And just to be sure she keeps the thing pinned to the ground and tears its head off with her teeth. After a moment she does however realize that she had forgotten just how bad goblin blood tastes and starts spitting it out.

While the natives are not all that disturbed by the sight, either through merit of knowing that tigers are not to messed around with, or due to having seen something similar happening quite often. The students on the other hand cant help but see the often docile and friendly feline in a new light, a light which shows that they should probably never ever make this cat angry.

Raskreia leads the chariot down to the ground a few feet away from the people on the ground. Three out of four of them are of human size while the last one, the one knocked unconscious, is of smaller build, a halfling. The group is all male except for the one currently casting some healing spells on the halfling.

One of them, a man in chain mail, walks up to the chariot making sure to keep Felniir in his eyes. As he reaches them he takes of his helmet and speaks to her in common.

 _"Thank you kind lady for your assistance. I don't know how we would have survived without your timely arrival_ ."

Though only moments after his helmet was of and his sentence was done Raskreia had only one thought _'Of all things he had to be a-'_

"ELF!" comes the collective shout from three out of four of her passengers _'-elf'_ leaving her nothing to do but sigh and smile apologetically at the confused elf in front of her.

* * *

Unknown location

* * *

In the total darkness of a long forgotten underground ruin one would assume only rock, dust and silence to be present. This is not so however.

Chains clinking together can be heard as well flesh hitting flesh. This is accompanied by the panting and grunting of some form of creature.

As the sounds die down the darkness is slightly broken by two separate sources of light not bright enough to illuminate anything. Orange reptilian orbs hovering disembodied in the air, these two orbs are projecting an amount of malice and hatred at whatever has left just moments ago that if a creature with even the most basic amount of self preservation instincts were to see them they would surely choose to stay as far away as possible, or at the very least beg for forgiveness if flight is impossible.

After a moment of further glaring these orbs close, once more leaving the area in total blackness as a thought passes the beings mind. _'I feel my freedom is approaching. I hope that little insect will live long enough to see me unbound… I want to personally grind his bones to dust.'_


	16. Chapter 16

"Halkeginian "  
 _'Thoughts'  
_ _'Telepathy'  
_ **'Spells and the like'  
** _"Common/Dwarven/Elven"  
_ ** _"Speech: Draconic"  
"_** **Speech: Abyssal"**

* * *

As the cry of "ELF!" fills the air, Raskreia can't help but think _'What did I do to deserve this.'_

Before any spells could potentially fly from the somewhat panicked students she interposes herself between the man and the children offering a hand to him in greeting.

He at first delicately takes her hand in his, but turns it into a firm handshake once he realizes she is indeed not as frail as she appears to be at first glance. _"Greetings to you."_ She says to him in fluent elvish _"and no thanks are needed, for you would have surely done the same had our roles been reversed."_

He nods in agreement, letting go of her hand in the process _"This is true, but never the less I thank you. We should however speak in the common tongue for my companions are not as well versed in the elvish tongue as you or I am."_ He takes a step backwards before continuing this time in common _"My name is Beican, those two are Eldrad and Elena, the Halfling currently unconscious is Idoric."_

The mentioned people are currently in a small huddle, with Eldrad bandaging an arrow would he had sustained and Elena casting what appear to be healing spells on Idoric who is now once more waking.

 _"May we inquire your names?" Beican's words cast her out of her observations._

Raskreia quickly introduces everyone on her side, the students having visibly calmed down quite a bit by now due to the calm nature she had been interacting with the elf.

 _"I have to wonder however, what was it with their reaction upon seeing me, they still seem quite afraid of me?"_ Beican is making sure to make no sudden movements and to stay in full view of the children as to not startle or frighten then any further.

 _"They come from a land which fears elves. We are, as far as I could discern, portrayed in their culture as poorly as devils and demons are in ours."_ She cant help but let an amused undertone enter her voice.

Judging by the glimmer of mischief that enters his eyes he caught her insinuation but chose to not comment on it. _"I see, how peculiar that is indeed."_ He turns to look towards his now healed compatriots during which time Raskreia casts a **'Tongues'** spell on Kirche so that she may translate for the other three what is being said.

 _"Well, now that we are patched up we should head out once more. Our quest is not one easily abandoned."_ Beican's voice drifts over to them now accompanied by the rest of his group. _"I sincerely hope that there are no more of this strange type of goblin where we are going, for it will make our task much more of a challenge than we hoped it to be."_

Felniir, who had until then chosen to stay and inspect the corpses of the dead critters, saunters up to the group of people. _"Not to make a bad situation worse, but those are no mere goblins. Not all of them at the very least."_

It says volumes about the mentality of the average adventurer that hearing a big cat speak in fluent common counts as little more than a interesting occurrence, if their facial impressions are anything to go by at least.

 _"If not goblins then what are these?"_ This was for a change not Beican who spoke, but rather Elena.

 _"I didn't say they were not goblins, I said they were not merely goblins."_ The next words that left Felniir's maw caused a shiver of dread to pass the four adventurers _"They are Half-fiends."_

 _"Are you certain of this?"_ Beican is looking more grim than he had since the beginning of this conversation. And at the nod of confirmation from the tiger he continues _"This bodes no good."_

A few moments of silence pass in which the only sound is that of the students murmuring to one another in their native language after Kirche had finished translating everything that had been said.

A few glances pass between the four adventurers as though in a silent conversation, and Beican once more turns towards Raskreia. _"I dislike having to ask you for further aid, but would you consider aiding us in our task, I fear the four of us might not be able to complete it on our own, and it is a time sensitive matter which allows us not to retreat first."_

At Raskreia's questioning gaze he elaborates _"You see, a few days ago a small farming hamlet has been raided by what was thought to be goblins. The curious thing however was that there were no bodies found in the ruin, and human tracks intertwined with those of goblins. These goblins took prisoners."_

 _"I see."_ Raskreia then turns towards the children "Alright, I'm assuming you caught all of that. And before any of you say anything, no I am not taking you with me. It is simply to dangerous."

As expected the students start to protest this decision but one line in particular, said with probably not much thought behind it, caught Raskreia's attention in particular. Who said it she doesn't know but she heard it quite clearly. "Is it even safe here?"

After hearing that line Raskreia freezes, and her gaze unfocuses, now no longer seeing what is in front of her but rather sees an even long past.

Ashes, cinders, burned and mutilated corpses everywhere, dozens of them. She cares not for any but one of the bodies, the only one not even slightly singed by the raging inferno that had passed through here.

And during that brief moment all she can see, all she can comprehend is the numerous wounds across the persons body, the blood marring their golden hair, the tear stains down their face and the marks of hands around the throat.

For everyone else they only see Raskreia freeze up for a moment, and it takes them a few seconds to realize she is no longer paying attention to them.

Felniir has a horrible feeling that she knows what has happened just now, but there isn't much she can do about it at the moment.

And then for just a brief second those watching could have sworn the air around them got warmer by a few degrees, and for less than a fraction of a second the once docile, friendly and companionable person that is Raskreia is replaced by a snarling figure, teeth like daggers and eyes alight with rage and grief.

But it was over so soon that most passed it off as their imagination. And now again all smiles Raskreia focused once more on reality around her.

"Ah, of course. Naturally you can come with us." Before any of the four can comprehend this complete heel-turn Felniir walks up and starts snarling at Raskreia in Draconic.

 ** _"You can't be serious. You CAN'T take them with us on this. They are children for gods sake, they are not made for this."_** The amount of vigor with which this was said is only enhanced through the snarling and hissing quality of the draconic tongue. And it is honestly quite the intimidating language to listen to, especially when you can't understand a word of what is being said.

 ** _"And I cant just leave them alone either, what if someone or something finds them?"_**

At those words Felniir visibly relaxes quite a bit **_"This is about THAT, isn't it? And don't try to deny it I saw you space out back there."_**

 ** _"N- It might be. But the fact that I might base my decision on that doesn't change the fact that it is something to watch out for."_**

Felniir can do naught but sigh **_"True, but neither is it a good idea to take them with us. You saw those little pests, they are nasty customers. And I somehow doubt we have seen the last of them. Can't you teleport the kids somewhere or gate them back for the time being?"_**

 ** _"I suppose I could, but that would require quite a few high grade spells on my part and who knows what might show up by the end of the day. Half fiends don't just grow out of the ground."_**

 ** _"How about a magnificent mansion then? A seventh tier spell shouldn't hurt you, the only thing you would be loosing is the use out of your vestment."_**

 ** _"I- yes that should work, it can hardly get any safer than an extradimensional space. Lets go with that."_**

What both of them forgot is that Kirche could perfect understand every single word spoken, but she chose to not say anything.

"Alright, sorry for my indecisiveness, but I decided for you to not accompany us after all. And no I wont hear any argument. I will create you a comfortable place to stay in, it will last for quite a while, but should it for some reason run out before I am back head in that direction and you should get to the city of Druma, once there ask for someone named Kwalin, to do this I will give you my translation item so you may talk to them in the first place."

As she finishes saying that she pulls out a spell formula and presses it to her chest causing it to briefly shimmer with magic whereupon Raskreia briefly chants a spell incantation. After she is done a shimmering, nearly invisible, oval portal opens up mid air.

"Just step through here and you will be safe for the next two days, I shouldn't take nearly that long but you never know. And now I will give you the aforementioned item, once I take this necklace off I wont be able to understand you anymore so there is that." After that sentence she takes off her necklace and hands it to Tabitha, who for her part accepts the item without fuss.

Seeing as it is hard to argue with someone who cannot understand you, and that Tabitha is not very inclined to hand over the necklace, and that Kirche is staying quite the four students silently trudge through the oval portal, followed by their respective familiars. Sylphid fitting just barely, even if the portal adjusts itself for her to fit through.

Raskreia, after everyone went through the portal that was meant to, turns back towards the adventurers _"Right, lead the way. We can by the way use the carriage while it sill lasts."_

Beican nods and starts to mount the back of the carriage, the other three following suit.

 _"The place in question should be that way, we estimate it to be no further than two hours walk."_ Which makes Raskreia smile as she looks over her shoulder at the four people now sitting in the conjured vehicle.

 _"Well I think we shall make considerably better time than that."_ Before any of them could say anything to that the carriage once more took off.

* * *

Halkeginia, Trading post

* * *

Joshua cant say that he expected his new job to be the way it is. For one he considered himself adequate with the use of a spear. The Dwarves blew that line of thinking out of the water.

He thought he knew some good crafts people. The dwarves trumped any of those.

He thought he could hold his liquor. Well… one can guess where this line of thought is going.

Anyways. It was been a few days since this place started forming, first order of business was to build housing for everyone staying here and starting to build an actual gate.

The former was, while not complete by any stretch of the imagination, progressing rather well and they could even sleep in beds now rather than bedrolls. The latter however… well it isn't easy building a gate in any way shape or form, even if the framework is already there thanks to a sentient reptile.

That is another point that took a bit time of getting used to, having a dragon hang around and just start a conversation with you. Josh is certain some of his younger colleagues actually soiled themselves when the thing landed close to them the first few times.

That is not to say he didn't fulfill his own wish to go talk to the thing, Alrion as he learned he was called. And Raskreia was right, the dragon was a very good conversationalist, and his jokes were simply the best. Currently the great beast was away together with two of the dwarves, they are currently "constructing" a road leading to Tristania.

He didn't really have much left to do here, he has already finished creating as many stone constructs as there was a need of. Foundations were in place, walls were erected and so forth.

Josh honestly thought that the dragon was getting bored.

It was peaceful, it was quiet, and like all things wasn't going to last. He realized this last fact as an arrow whizzed just barely past him. Skinner, who had been posted with him on the walls, wasn't quite as lucky as he was shot straight through the throat. Not instantly lethal but in a combat situation it might as well be.

Resigning himself that Skinner was most probably a goner he ducked behind a parapet and blew the signal horn he had been given, cursing himself for not having noticed enemies approaching sooner.

To Joshes credit these people were smart about it, they used the waning sun and the shrubbery they have not yet cleared as cover for their approach. The fact that these were not entirely amateurs didn't help either.

Rapid movement could be heard from both sides of the walls as defenders were getting ready to repel the encroaching attackers.

Cursing his luck Josh starts loading his crossbow he had been handed upon being assigned to the walls. He stood up to shoot at someone, but just as he stood an arrow yet again flew by him, and as his luck would have it misses… severing the string of his crossbow in the process.

"Damn the… luck." Really what else is he to say as he goes to pick up Skinner's unused Crossbow. "By Brimir I swear I will put a bolt into one of those archers faces even if I have to do it by hand."

* * *

Golarion

* * *

It had taken the group a bit under an hour to reach their destination. It turned out to be a straight drop in the ground with a really rather rickety looking set of wooden stairs leading downward in a spiral.

 _"This is it"_ Spoke Beican as the group assessed the hole. _"Felniir and I should take point, Elena and Idoric behind us, Raskreia and Eldrad you can take the rear."_

 _"What's our objective here exactly?"_ This was Felniir as she took position at the front of the group.

 _"Our primary objective is to find and secure the kidnapped people. Failing that we should at least confirm whether or not they are all dead. Our secondary and tertiary objectives are eliminating the goblins and stopping whatever demonic influence lingers here. Our prime concern at the moment however remains with the captives."_

The rest of them nod, moving into their respective positions, to start the descent.

After a good five minutes of trudging down stairs that could give in at any moment they finally reach the bottom, undisturbed so far.

Once they reached the bottom Raskreia casts a light on a small pebble for the benefit of those without darkvision. As they move forward they studiously avoid anything that might hide a trap, however crude it could be. Not to mention the copious amounts of filth that is littering the ground.

None of them are squeamish by any means, but that doesn't mean they like walking through goblin excrement.

 _"I know they are goblins and we cant expect too much from them, but is it really too much to ask for them not to shit literally everywhere?"_ Elena comments as she avoids stepping into a particularly large mound.

 _"I don't know, I think it might be a mating ritual of sorts. That, or they are just retarded, possibly both."_ Elena's brother responds.

 _"You think you have it bad? My nose is about five times as well developed as yours! Still not as bad as that Othyug layer we went into years ago though, but not far off. Also I don't have boots."_ The only non humanoid of the group growls back at the humans behind her, who for their part stop complaining now and instead pity the tiger.

 _"I see a fork up ahead. Which way should we go, left or right?"_ Beican gets the group's attention back to the matter at hand.

Felniir moves over to both sides and carefully sniffs both sides of the tunnel, wincing as she does. _"I can smell human, or at least what I assume to be human, from either path, but the right path has less smell of goblin, if only by a bit."_

 _"From the left I can hear allot of noise further down."_ Beican mentions.

 _"Lets go right then, if only due to there potentially being less goblins down that path_. _"_ Eldrad says carefully eyeing the two paths.

They are now moving down the right path, and the further they go the wider the path becomes and the higher the ceiling, after a while the ground even smoothens out somewhat, when suddenly the lead pair stops after glancing around a bend.

 _"Two goblins ahead, look like those more dangerous ones too. They are standing in front of a metal door, it looks like an actual building."_ Beican whispers to those behind him.

 _"Goblins don't build, a ruin then? Why would there be a ruin down here?"_ Raskreia speaks up in a hushed voice. The rest of the party just shrugs.

 _"I don't know, nor do I care right now. I have a strong feeling at least some of the missing people are inside of that building."_ Beican whispers back, and glancing out once more. _"We should take those two out as silently as we can. Any suggestions?"_

They all think for a moment and Elena speaks up first _"I can silence them, then you could engage them in melee without making any sound."_

 _"Anything else?"_ Eldrad asks.

 _"Well, I was just going to use a disintegrate on one of them."_ Raskreia admits.

They all look at her for a moment _"That would do it, yeah. Alright, Felniir you take the right one, and Raskreia you shoot the left one. I will charge the left one in case it survives somehow. Eldrad and Idoric you assist Felniir. Sound good?"_ No one has any objections to Beican's plan so they all get ready to put the plan to action.

They take up their respective positions, Elena casts a silence on the space between the two guards at the same time as a green ray shoots out at the left goblin, who turns to ash the moment the green ray hits him. Not a second later Felniir sprints out of cover and pounces the still startled goblin viciously wounding him and knocking him prone, but not killing him due to it managing to avoid being bit through the throat.

The small creature would have celebrated this fact had a dagger not pierced its skull at the temple a moment later thanks to Idoric.

Elena then dispels the silence and the group approaches the door. Noticing that the ground became tiled for the last few feet.

 _"That went well. Am I glad we got these two with us right about now."_ Eldrad says motioning towards Raskreia and Felniir, causing both of them to smile at the man.

 _"This door isn't trapped. Sure looks heavy though."_ Idoric mentions from where he had inspected the door.

Raskreia looks around the place inspecting the tiles they are currently standing on, as broken as they are due to likely time and the goblins tender attention. But even through the wear and tear she can see that there on the ground are lines carved into the stone, and they might have once at some point made a circular shape. Shrugging it off as something of little importance she turns back towards the group who were in the process of taking a defensive position for opening the door.

Taking her place behind Eldrad, just in time for Beican to push open the door. After he does so they can hear low chattering and sobbing from beyond, which abruptly stops as the door starts to open.

Just as Beican and Elena are about to move into the room to check on what is likely the people they came in here for, a horn blast is heard from the way they came from. And there standing where they came from were two more goblins, same as the ones they had just killed. Both of them holding horns to their lips.

 ** _"Damn."_** Rask hisses out and was about to cast a spell at the two goblins. But before she can do so her eyes widen and she lets out a sound that is somewhere between a scream and a whimper.

The next thing anyone sees is Raskreia quite literally flying backwards through the door with a mighty beat of her wings, and she only stops when she hits the far wall. Uncaring of her surroundings now.

While the rest of their impromptu party is confused about her action, Felniir has a feeling she knows what caused this. And sure enough as she turns to look at the tunnel a good dozen giant spiders mounted by goblins come skittering at them along the floor, walls and ceiling, followed by the bellowing of what one can assume to be the rest of the goblins.

Felniir then hears Eldrad shout _"Into the room."_ Something she gladly obliges. And just a moment after she passes through the door slams shut behind her, but not wanting it to be opened again she slams herself against the door from the other side aided by Beican and Eldrad.

As the sound of multiple bodies slamming against the door from the other side of the door reaches them Beican turns towards Felniir and grits out _"What was that all about?"_

 _"Raskreia has a rather extreme case of Arachnophobia. Like REALLY bad."_ Felniir says back for the rest of them to hear. They might still look miffed at Rask's action just now but now they at least have a look of understanding on their faces.

Felniir now takes a quick look around the room and sees that there is just over a dozen humans in the room, tied to the walls. Most of them are female but there is a few men as well. They all look like they haven't eaten properly in for a few days, probably since being caught, she can't see more due to the lack of light in the large room.

Her inspection of the room is then interrupted by a voice from the back of the room. **"Duguþ ænig** **sylfum unc oncn** **áwan m é?"** and while Felniir most certainly could not understand what is being said she did recognize the language for what it was. Abyssal, the language of demons.

Whipping her head around once more she spots a pair of floating orbs at what is presumably the far wall of the room, close to where Raskreia had run off to. _"There is a demon in here with us."_ She says to the two men who are holding the door with her.

While that did got the desired attention from the two men they were in no state to let go of the door at the moment.

The demon for its part, or at least its eyes, looked contemplative for a moment. This didn't last long however as it heard something it honestly didn't expect, someone to speak Abyssal.

The woman just to the right of it seems to have gotten over whatever fear it had been under and looks up at it. **"I can understand you, if only barely, you are speaking in a very old form of Abyssal."**

 _'I didn't catch much of that but I think my dialect must be the issue here.'_ Though the demon. **_"Can you understand this then? You look like one of the draconic sort."_** The tone of voice used was almost hopeful.

When first Raskreia ran into the room she just wanted to get away from the spiders as fast as possible. That it could lead her to more danger she didn't even contemplate. That she would almost literally run into the demon they suspected of being here in the process she most certainly didn't expect, but it was still better than those eight legged menaces.

What she also didn't expect was that the demon in question to be a stunningly beautiful woman chained to the wall by her arms, legs and neck. She had ash grey skin, thick black horns extending from the sides of her head pointing forward at a downward angle, her hair is a wild mane of bright orange and reaches all the way to her lower back, being parted by a set of bat-like wings which seem to have been broken and not yet healed. Furthermore laying on the ground lazily is a long fleshy tail. The most catching thing about her though are the glowing, orange, reptilian eyes. A succubus most likely. It doesn't help Rask's concentration in the slightest either that the demoness is stark naked.

It takes Raskreia a moment to realize that she had been asked a question, and her moment of hesitation actually caused the demoness to look disappointed.

 ** _"Yes, yes I can understand this much more clearly."_** Normally she would be much more guarded about speaking to a demon but the fact that she was chained up to a wall, hasn't attacked yet, and that all the humans in the room are still alive makes her relax the slightest bit. Also the sheer amount of excitement on the woman's face is quite funny.

 ** _"Good. Now, if you press that skull in the center of the door, wait for it to click three times, and the press it again that will lock the door. And before you say anything, yes I am a demon, and you would be a fool to trust me for no reason. But you can trust me on this as I want those filthy creatures in this room as little as you do."_**

As this is going on Elena has cut the bindings of the men and women who are trapped here many of whom, as many as can fit, help with holding the door. While Felniir is translating what is being said between Raskreia and the as of yet unnamed Demon. Occasionally the door would spring open a tiny bit, enough for a hand to reach through, but those get swiftly cut off by Idoric or get completely crushed between wall and door.

One woman speaks up timidly over the sound of screaming coming from the other side of the door. _"I don't know if it helps sires, but that woman, demon, has reason enough to hate those goblins. They did things to her, things no woman should have to endure. I think she even purposefully kept their attention away from us by provoking them."_

Eldrad chuckles lightly _"I say at this point we might as well go for it. The situation cant get 110% fucked."_

Beican nods at his friend, looks back at Raskreia who nods at him as well and he does as the demon had suggested. The moment he presses the button a second time all the pressure that had been coming from the goblins on the other side stops, but not the hollering. The door is now firmly shut.

 _"Huh, what do you know, a demon that said the truth."_ Idoric comments to the group.

Raskreia turns back to the demon after having confirmed that they are relatively safe for the moment. **_"I thank you, but I know that demons never do anything for free. What do you gain out of this?"_**

 ** _"Merely a chance at freedom."_** Was the reply, and the serious look on her face said that she meant it.

 ** _"You can't honestly expect us to free you for helping us close a door. For all we know you will just try to kill us yourself."_**

 ** _"I am not speaking of you unbinding me, although it would be appreciated. I am speaking of freedom at a more metaphysical level. What I mean to say is that you killing me would be freedom enough."_** That Honestly threw Raskreia for a loop, a demon that wants to die. No wait a when one kills a demon they often return to the abyss and reform.

 ** _"What stops us from just leaving you here then?"_**

 ** _"Nothing but the goblins outside, though I should probably warn you that you wont be able to use magic to combat them as long as you are inside here."_** The demons voice has gone into a complete monotone now.

 ** _"What? Are we inside of a anti-magic zone!? My magic items all still work though."_** And true to the demons word when Raskreia tried to cast cantrip nothing happened.

 ** _"Not precisely, that door over there is no mere door, this here is a small demi-plane, made to allow only one kind of magic. Magic involving the true name of an outsider."_**

 ** _"That is a rather specific thing to allow, I am going to bet there is a story behind it."_** While Raskreia was talking with the as of yet unnamed demon the rest of the people were listening aptly to Felniir translating what is being said.

 ** _"Oh yes, yes there is. Do you want the short version or the long one?" "Short version for now please."_** The demon nodded.

 ** _"You see this place was created specifically to imprison me and me alone. Even these chains were hand crafted to bind me, going so far as to use my own blood in the process of their creation. Long ago a fellow demon lusted after me. He wanted me to be his, yet he did not simply want a mindless or otherwise broken toy. He wanted me fully, mind body and soul, to be a loyal slave in all things. To spare you the details he succeeded in capturing me and placed me here bound by these chains. And the only way for me to leave here is to either die, which I cant naturally due to my demonic nature. Or for me to swear eternal servitude by my true name. He would show up every fifty to a hundred years, or at least that is what he claimed, to check if I had given in yet. As you can see I have not."_** This was mostly said in a blank monotone, only for some her words to be laced with such hatred that it made Rask glad it was not directed at her.

 ** _"T-that is awful. I mean I kind off expect such things from your kind, but to see it actually happen is another thing entirely. Just how long have you been in here."_** The demon shrugged as best as her position allowed.

 ** _"Hard to keep track of time down here, it has been a really long time since that bastard showed up. I think he might have either lost interest in me or he might have died. I am hoping for the former so I might at some point be able to beat him to death with his own spine."_**

 ** _"Any event you might remember that I might also know about?"_** While the amount of time the woman had been stuck here did not truly matter all that much she was curios about it either way.

 ** _"Hmmm, well there was this meteor that fell and destroyed some human kingdom or some such a decade before I got put in here. And the last time I saw my 'warden' he said something about a new god having risen, Aroben? I believe he said."_**

This legitimately caused Raskreia to freeze, as well as everyone else who had heard the translation and understood even the slightest bit of history. This being had been stuck here in isolation for close to ten thousand years.

 ** _"That… is a long time."_** Raskreia finally said **_"A really long time in fact."_**

 ** _"I guessed that much."_** The demon shifts a bit, presumably to make herself slightly more comfortable. **_"So, now what?"_**

 ** _"I don't know."_** Raskreia then turns back towards the rest of the people _"Alright people, what do we do now? There is a horde of goblins outside, we cant use magic while in here, and I am going to get a panic attack the moment I see a spider."_

Idoric chuckles mirthlessly " _Of course you had to have arachnophobia, didn't you? Oh well, we all have that one thing we are afraid of. You couldn't cast spells while in here anyways, so there isn't really a point in discussing this anyways."_

 _"Well, yes, but I still feel bad about it. It basically makes me close to useless."_

 _"Don't worry about it, now let us just think about how to get out of here."_ Elena said with a small smile directed at Raskreia.

 _"Well there is five of us that are combat capable in here not counting Raskreia. And out there is between two-dozen and a hundred goblins. Add to that the fact we cant cast magic while in here and you get the current picture"_ Beican sums up for them just how bad their situation really is looking right now.

Eldrad then pipes up _"Well we could enlist the demon. She seemed to be rather partial to killing some goblins."_ Which earned him a slap to the shoulder from his sister.

 _"You want to deal with a demon?"_

 _"Want to? No, not particularly. But it does seem like a decent option right now, compared to every other option at least."_

One of the villager men speaks up now _"Excuse me for butting in sirs, but are demons not always irredeemably evil and cannot be trusted?"_

They all turn towards him and Beican speaks _"A safe assumption for the most part. But there is exceptions to every rule, some demons follow a personal code of honor I hear. And there had even been rumours of a redeemed demon up north."_

 _"Oh you mean, what was her name… Arueshalae?"_ Everyone turned towards her questioningly _"A friend of mine, a paladin, met her briefly a while ago. She is apparently a succubus striving to become a paladin, don't know much about her beyond that."_

 _"And this paladin friend of yours did not kill her on sight?"_ someone asked.

 _"He was talked out of it apparently, I wasn't there." Rask says with a shrug._

 _"I am a cleric of Sarenrae, and she does preach forgiveness, that everyone deserves a second chance."_ Elena says _"But she also speaks that there are those who are beyond redeeming, such as demons and undead."_

Raskreia nods at that "Again there are exception to everything. The succubus mentioned earlier being an exception to the demons, and I know for a fact that undead such as Revenants are not strictly evil, or at least they don't have to be. And I have once met a vampire that was not evil, she was turned unwillingly and just had to 'live' with it from then on, if you can excuse the choice of words."

 _"I suppose you are right in a way, but that doesn't mean I have to like it."_ The cleric shakes her head a bit _"Besides, say it does help us, how much of a help do you think it would really be?"_

Rask scratches her chin a bit in thought before answering _"Well, assuming what she had said is even partially true, she must have been a demon of some import. Demons often value power over anything else, so I doubt any of them would go out of their way to trap a mere grunt the way this one has. So my guess is that she is a rather powerful individual of her species, which would be rather helpful right now id say."_

 _"Fine then. I suppose at the very least dying to a powerful demon would have more dignity to it than dying to a horde of goblins or due to starvation."_ While she did agree Elena looked anything but pleased about this.

Beican for his part stared at the demon in the back for the past few minutes, who for her part merely gazed back unblinking, after a while he had to break eye contact and shook his head. _"I honestly think she might be desperate to leave. But I want you to ask her one thing, why didn't she swear loyalty to the goblin chief. After all its lifespan is by far shorter than that of any of us, so she would have to only serve for a decade or two, and then be truly free."_

None of them had thought of that, but now that they thought about It, it did seem a bit weird.

 _"That's a good point, let me ask."_ Raskreia then turned towards the demon once more **_"We have a question. If you desire freedom so much, why did you not just swear loyalty to the goblin to break free yourself of those chains, it would have meant a relatively short period of servitude considering the lifespan of a goblin."_**

The demon snarled back at her, a sound of pure hatred and anger, and it was actually one of the most terrifying sounds Raskreia has ever heard, and she has heard the death-wail of an Astradaemon.

 ** _"You ask why I chose not to serve that little vermin!? That little pest deserves nothing less than being torn limb from bloody limb. If I ever so much as get my hands on him I will turn him into a bauble to be hung of a tree."_** She has to visibly clam herself down once more before continuing to speak now once more a neutral face. **_"My loathing for the little rat aside there is a another reason for it, even were I to spit on the last remnants of my pride as a living creature, the oath has to be confirmed by the one I swear it to. Unfortunately goblins speak neither Abyssal, neither new nor old dialects, and no other language I know was understood either. And these blasted chains keep me from using telepathy."_**

Raskreia Turned back towards the people who had already heard what was being said due to Felniir translating for them.

 _"There you have it."_ The dragoness said.

Beican nods to himself for a moment, then once more locks eyes with the demon _"I suppose that is good enough for me. I say go for it Raskreia."_

 _"Eh, Why me?"_ She was honestly surprised, in her old group there would be at least a ten minute discussion on who would do something like this, with everyone giving arguments and counter arguments as to who should be the one to carry the burden as it were.

She could actually imagine it quite clearly.

Zarhon would be extremely cautious in what he was doing but ultimately he would want to be the one to have this demon be sworn to. She would make a case for either Kwalin or Thorgal to be the one to do it depending on their individual willingness, but hint at the fact that she would like to do it herself. Kwalin and Thorgal would both most likely Neutral in the matter silently judging who is best suited for the task out of all of them. And Felniir would probably do the exact same as she is doing right now, patiently waiting for something to happen.

This is of course after them having spent half an eternity deciding what to do in this situation in the first place. And also the likelihood of coming to the decision of freeing a demon would have been rather slim to begin with. What with two of them being holy warriors. Not impossible, just unlikely at this stage.

 _"Well you are the only one besides the cat that can talk to her, and Felniir seems rather uninterested in the whole thing. Trust me I would like to have a hot demoness at my beck and call if I could."_ Idoric answered, though the last remark earned him glares from a good portion of them women in the room, and a punch to the shoulder by Elena.

With a sigh Raskreia turns towards Felniir _"You sure you don't want to do this instead?"_

 _"I am a cat, leave me out of this, I mean 'Meow'. In all seriousness though this is more your shtick than mine."_

 _"Man am I glad. Now I can get another lecture about sensible decisions from Kwalin and Thorgal. I can hear them already 'something something demons are bad'."_ She then walks over to the still unnamed demon.

 ** _"We came to the conclusion that it would be beneficial if we could enlist you to help us get out of here. If you are willing of course."_**

The moment those words left her mouth the demons face went from surprise to an expression of pure excitement. A stark contrast to the anger she had shown on her face earlier. **_"I- Are you certain?"_** At Raskreia's nod she goes on to look even more excited before realizing what she was doing and going completely neutral once more. If Rask was honest with herself it is somewhat cute to watch.

 ** _"Very well. I believe it would not be so bad to serve the spawn of a dragon. There is certainly worse options out there. Very well Lady dragon come forward so I can give myself to you."_** Somewhat hesitantly Raskreia moves closer to the demoness but throws away her doubt to lean in closely to the woman.

 ** _"You still do not trust me I see, good. That is good, trust must be earned, not granted. All you have to do now is accept my oath by stating you do so."_** She then leans hear head towards Raskreia as best as she could to whisper in her ear.

 ** _"I -"_** The sound that came out of her mouth, which could only be her true name, was close to indescribable. It was a mixture of a lustful moan at the heights of passion, the yawn of a sleep deprived person and the warcry of an enraged berserker. The sound felt silky to the ears yet incredibly grating at the same time, it left a feeling of incredible satisfaction yet took the same feeling away once more. **_"Do so swear you eternal loyalty, I shall be yours to command mind body and soul, from here on and forever more."_**

Raskreia felt a foreign kind of magic creep its way towards her very being, yet it simply stayed there, waiting. After having recovered from the shiver that ran down her spine after hearing this beings true name she quickly composes herself to answer. **_"I Raskreia, daughter of the golden wyrm Arzirius, accept your oath."_**

The moment the words left her the chains binding the demon disintegrated into nothing, letting the woman fall to the ground for the first time in millennia, leaving small motes of magic to float about for a moment before vanishing inside of the demon.

She stays there on the ground for a good minute, trying to stand up once more. When being offered help by Raskreia she refuses on the grounds of **_"If I cannot even stand on my own two legs how do you expect me to help you? Just give me a few moments to remember how to use my body."_**

 ** _"I am honestly surprised you can move at all. Being an outsider must be nice. By the way, here you can use this to cover yourself."_** Rask takes off her sleeves which causes her clothes to turn once more into their original forms. **_"They are sleeves of many garments."_**

The demon accepts the sleeves with a nod **_"Thank you."_** Once she put the sleeves on they instantly turned into a set of practical clothes that looked rather comfortable and easy to move in.

 ** _"After I figure out once more how to move I should be the same as I had been before being stuck here. So there is that."_** True to her word after being able to stand once more she quickly proceeded to walk, first unsteadily but then slowly transitioning into a graceful gait and then jogging and running.

Five minutes later she had gone through most basic muscle exercises and once she was done one wouldn't believe she had not been able to move for any extended amount of time.

Everyone was just to the side looking on either impressed or in apprehension as the demon began to quickly regain her motor functions.

Once she was done she slowly walks over to where everyone has grouped up, never truly averting her eyes away from Raskreia, and once she does everyone can at once hear a voice in their head.

 _'Greetings to you. I thank you all for coming to the decision of freeing me. You have my thanks for this.'_

She was at once assaulted by the voices of dozens of humans projecting their thoughts through the telepathy. She cuts away all of the former captives leaving only the adventurers in the link. As everything once more goes quiet, as the adventurers know how to properly handle telepathy, Cathilia sends a small glare at the confused civilians.

 _'So you can use telepathy now once more? Good makes communication much more easy. Though what do we call you?'_ Beican asks, unperturbed by the fact that he is talking to a now very much unbound demon.

She briefly looks over at him _'You may call me Cathilia for that is the name I took for myself.'_ Before once again locking her eyes on Raskreia. _'It is weird, I do not feel any different than I did before. I have no particular compulsion to serve you, nor do I feel as though I will be punished for disobedience.'_ This makes everyone who could hear that nervous, maybe they did make a mistake after all. _'No matter. I gave you an oath of loyalty and I shall obey it even if it is not enforced the way I expected. Or perhaps this way of thinking is due to the oath? I know not.'_

Rask breathes out a sigh of relief, for a moment she was worried. ' _That little heart attack aside, what can you do that can help us out of here?'_

 _'Open the door and close it behind me, you may come out once the screams stop.'_

 _'There is so many things I want to comment on in that sentence alone I don't know where to start.'_ Idoric comments _'For starters, aren't succubae usually opposed to the idea of melee?'_

 _'You think me a succubus?'_ She looks once more at Raskreia 'Y _ou as well?'_

 _'Well, I thought it was likely, though I was uncertain.'_ The dragoness is shifting a bit in discomfort at her ignorance of the true species of the person who swore her life to her.

To their surprise Cathilia starts to chuckle lightly _'Oh by the pits. To be mistaken for one of those wretches, it has truly been a long time since that has happened. Worry not there had been a time where I was often mistaken for one of their kind, after all most of my kind choose a more masculine form. Larger and more intimidating too, I for my part prefer a female form and enjoy the compactness this size offers.'_

 _'What are you then?'_ Elena asks as she makes room for the demon as it passes her.

Cathilia touches the door which emits a faint clicking sound much to the panic of everyone else in the room.

The door bursts open moments later to reveal a very surprised looking, singular, goblin flying in. The rest of the horde had apparently given up for the moment to break down the door.

Cathilia grabs the thing by its skull mid flight and smiles in a very feral sort of 'I will kill you and enjoy doing so' sort of way. She starts projecting her telepathy to everyone in range at that moment. She completely ignores the dagger sized blade that rams itself into her chest courtesy of the flailing goblin in her hand. But not taking a attack on herself lightly she lets her hand ignite in deep orange flames, causing the goblin to increase its shrieks ten-fold before dropping still.

 _'My name is Cathilia Skullgrinder. Balor, Lord of my kind.'_ She then stops projecting those thoughts towards the people in the room behind her and instead only projects them towards the goblins _'And you have all come here… to die.'_ She punctuates this statement by ramming the dead goblin she was still holding head first into the doorframe, sending chunks of skull and brain everywhere.

Cathilia then uses her tail to close the door behind her. After doing so she, with a single beat of her wings catapults herself to the other side of the small horde of close to a hundred green skinned pests and a few dozen spiders blocking their only way of escape.

She pulls out the dagger still lodged inside of her chest in a single pull, the 'wound' sealing itself shut the moment the obstruction is removed never truly being a bother in the first place. As she holds the shoddy dagger, which gains a wicked gleam the moment her hand had grasped it, a long whip of flames forms in her other hand.

 _'And I shall be the one to carry out the sentence'_

Inside the prison room the people had wisely locked the door once more, as after a few moments the banging on the door had become rather frantic and panicked, punctuated by cries of pain and wet sounds of flesh, and the constant roar of a fire.

 _"Please tell me I only just imagined it saying it was a balor."_ Elena whispered out loud enough for people next to her to hear _"Please tell me we didn't just free a greater demon."_

 _"No, you didn't free her. I did."_ Said Raskreia, who was now leaning on Felniir who also looked rather spooked _"Gods do I hope that oath works."_

 _"You and me both"_ says Eldrad.

Cathilia in the meantime was jumping all over the place breaking bones with kicks, tearing flesh with her hands, burning whole swaths of goblins with her whip and incinerating any who had the bright idea to grapple with her.

She made a point of making the deaths of those who tried to flee through the tunnel especially brutal, though it WAS impossible for her to body block a hundred beings. Instead she simply broke the stairs that led to the surface, trapping the goblins inside this cave for the time being. The spiders been killed right at the beginning.

After a while she made this into a sort of sport. She would tear a goblin in half with her hands, beat them to death with one another using one of them as an improvised club. She even dominated the mind of one of her unwanted children commanding it to attack everything but her in sight to see how long it could survive.

This went on for half an hour and by the end there was only one living goblin left in the cave, the rest being reduced to corpses strewn about everywhere.

This one was the former chief of the goblins, who was currently in the process of trying to climb out of the hole. Deciding to humour the little tyke she waits silently out of sight for him to reach the top.

Just before he does reach the top she teleports herself up to the surface right where he is starting to emerge over the edge.

She then leans down and picks the thing up by its neck. _'Here let me help you up'_ the thing freezes completely in her grasp and the strong smell of ammonia reaches her nose. _'As pathetic as ever I see.'_

No more words are projected to him by her as she slams the thing into a nearby boulder with enough force to harm but not kill. She places a single finger on its forehead and does a quick chant causing the finger to exude a menacing black glow **'Implosion'**. After having finished the chant the Goblin only has time to utter a single shriek of pain before its body folds in on itself and all that is left of it is a fist sized ball the weight of a goblin.

She lets out a sigh of satisfaction before teleporting into the cavern before her prison. Once there she sees the people from inside carefully walking outside and gaining confidence in their stride once they see that everything in sight is dead.

Well, the adventurers do, the civilians look to be having trouble keeping the contents of their stomachs inside.

Raskreia moves over to her, pointedly ignoring the mangled spider corpses strewn about.

 ** _"You are still here?"_** Her voice was curious and a bit relieved at once.

 ** _"I am."_** Was the curt reply.

All Raskreia could think then was 'This is going to be a bitch to explain to anyone.'

* * *

AN: Longest chapter yet, sorry for the wait.


	17. Chapter 17

"Halkeginian "

 _'Thoughts'_

 _'Telepathy'_

 **'Spells and the like'**

 _"Common/Dwarven/Elven"_

 _ **"Speech: Draconic"**_

 **"Speech: Abyssal"**

* * *

After they had gotten everyone out of their prison room they wanted to look around for the few captives that had not been in said room. This however was made unnecessary once Cathilia explained that she had seen their mortal remains in the main camp of the greenskins, gnawed to the bone.

Naturally The adventurers explained this to the civilians in a much more gentle way than the blunt statement of fact Cathilia had originally told this as.

Their next problem was figuring out how to get everyone out of the hole and to the surface. The stairs, as shoddy as they might have been, had after all been broken by Cathilia. Not that she willingly would admit to doing so, but everyone had their suspicion of it anyways.

However this problem was solved by the same person who caused it in the first place. Scant moments after being presented with this issue Cathilia suggested she could simply use telekinesis to lift everyone up towards the top a couple at a time.

Something that the people gratefully, if somewhat hesitantly accepted. Though after seeing the first few people reach the surface unharmed they grew less afraid by the minute.

In the end the last people left inside of the hole are Raskreia and Cathilia, both of whom choose to use their own wings to fly to the surface. Raskreia however noticed one thing that she had not before, Cathilia's wings are no longer poorly healed mess. She decided to ask her about it later.

They both landed on the surface to see the people up there already preparing themselves for departure. Eldrad and Elena talking to the civilians currently as Idoric and Beican are looking over a map.

 _"So, Beican. I suppose it is farewell then?"_ Raskreia said gaining the elf's attention.

 _"I do suppose it is. Though it must not be, we are going to stay in these regions for some time yet if things go as planned, so we might see one another still."_ Beican said with a smile at the dragoness.

 _"Certainly without you around our view will worsen dramatically once more."_ Idoric joked, earning him a light slap over the head with Rask's tail. _"Seriously though, you made things a hell of a lot easier for us and probably saved everyone here, you and Felniir that is."_

 _"You are very much welcome. By the way. If you are headed for Druma, I can recommend you a very good smithy for equipment you might need. Seek out Kwalin's forge, he is an old friend of mine, and sells what is most likely some of the best steel around."_

 _"Thank you for the tip, perhaps we will see one another there."_ Beican then looked over at Cathilia _"What do you intend to do about her?"_

 _"I was thinking of just rolling with it and to see where it goes. Not like I can really harm her, even if I wanted. Also it isn't really a crime to be a demon, she has done no wrong by us so far has she?"_ She said with a shrug, honestly she wasn't so sure about things herself but showing this would be foolish at this point and only complicate things further.

 _"The villagers for one seem to have agreed that she cannot be so bad, if she helped them as much as she did."_ He at this point looks back at Raskreia _"I will not judge you for this, nor will I judge Cathilia with prejudice either, just take care of yourself. And try not to let a balor run rampart, that is the last thing we need."_ He said the last part with a mirthful chuckle and a pat on her back. Felniir did however notice that the demon briefly tensed at the motion, watching Beican's hand intently, before relaxing once more once the hand moved away.

A few more minutes later, the villagers having profusely thanked them for saving them. Some going as far as going to hug Raskreia, something she politely rebuffed. And perhaps even more shocking a few went to shake Cathilia's hands in thanks, something that she accepted but mostly due to being confused by the gesture. Those who did were shocked at the sheer heat coming from her body, which made shaking her hand feel like grasping warm silky smooth steel.

Once everyone had gone on their way only Raskreia, Cathilia and Felniir were left in the area around the chasm.

 _ **"And thus there were only three."**_ Raskreia said. _**"We should get moving as well, I had left some children inside a magical space to come here earlier, and I need to get back to them."**_

 _ **"What should I do then?"**_ Cathilia said with a slightly cocked head.

 _ **"Right… you… this is quite new waters for me here. Usually meetings I had with demons were much less civil."**_ She scratches her cheek in thought _**"I mean, no offence, but I am half expecting you to try and kill me at any moment."**_

Cathilia nods in agreement to her worries _**"I am rather certain that I would have the same concerns had our positions been reversed. If it eases your mind you could bind me so that it would be more difficult for me to harm you."**_ She seems to think on something before seemingly gaining an epiphany _**"Or perhaps you would like to remove my arms or legs to be certain?"**_ She said holding out her Arms, and something told Raskreia that she was completely serious in her suggestion.

Letting out a small gasp before shaking her head vigorously in denial Raskreia answers the demoness _**"Even if I wanted to bind you, I do not have any bindings on me secure enough to hold you."**_ She then takes Cathilia's hands into her own before lowering them gently. _**"And I am most certainly not going to dismember you."**_

The demon curiously looks at her hands where Raskreia is still holding them, before looking back up staring into the dragons sapphire orbs a questioning expression on her face. _**"You would risk your own safety, and that of others for MY wellbeing? This is not to say I mean you any harm, mind you."**_ She then extracts her hands from Rask's before taking a step back and bowing down ever so slightly. _**"I am now certain that you were the correct person for my oath."**_

Both tiger and dragon looked stunned at the demon. Perhaps, just perhaps, they will not be turned into minced meat by an otherworldly meat-grinder. One can always hope.

 _ **"Were you actually just now trying to guilt-trip me into dismembering you? Urgh, I will just trust you to not murder me brutally for now I suppose, gods know you could have already."**_ She said with a shake of her head. _'Seriously, the things I get into sometimes.'_

 _ **"The offer still stands however, you are free to do with me as you see fit."**_ Raskreia had a rather hard time fighting down the blush that threatened to break out as explicit images flashed before her at those arguably suggestive words, even though they had likely not been intended as such.

 _ **"Weren't you going to retrieve some younglings, should we not head out then?"**_ Cathilia pulled Rask out of her musings with a start causing Felniir to lightly snicker at her, something that gets silenced once Rask almost literally jumps on top of her. Now the cat might not particularly like this but she also knows she deserves it to a degree.

 _ **"Right then, Can you keep up?"**_ Huffs out the tigress, though the underlying challenge is not lost to Cathilia.

 _ **"The better question is if YOU can keep up. You want to race, no magic and no flight?"**_ If Raskreia didn't know any better then she would say these two might become friends rather quickly if this is any indication of future interactions.

 _ **"You are on, Demon. Our destination is straight in that direction, it is a shimmering portal floating mid air."**_ _'Yep, they are now both grinning.'_ Thought Raskreia.

 _ **"I will just fly along with you guys then."**_ She said as she lifted herself of the tigress with a beat of her wings, starting to slowly fly towards their destination.

A few moments later she is overtaken by a rather unusual pair. They might not be all out running as of the moment, but they are both moving at a pace that would be rather hard to keep up with for a human. Sighing to herself Raskreia flies after them at a slightly heightened pace.

They had been head to head for most of the way from there. Only once they were starting to get rather close did Felniir start in an all out sprint, with Cathilia following her pace, causing Rask to also quicken her pace.

In the end all three of them arrived at approximately the same time. And by now the sun is slowly setting.

 _ **"You are faster than I expected demon."**_ One might think so, but there is no real bite behind the word demon, unlike what it might have once been.

 _ **"And I expected you to win with your four legs… I do not know the word for your species in this language."**_ She says this, and one can see that her lack of knowledge is agitating her. Though probably not due to Felniir's feelings and more due to the fact that she feels she should know.

 _ **"I am a tiger."**_ Making Cathilia nod gratefully at the feline.

As Raskreia lands on the ground she transforms once more into her human form for the benefit of the students inside of the portal a few paces away. _**"Right, here we are."**_ She then turns towards the resident demon _**"Please do be on your best behaviour, I have grown rather fond of these kids."**_ Earning her a slow nod from her.

The trio then enters through the shimmering portal in the air, Raskreia in the lead. Once inside the first thing they see is a sleeping Sylphid.

Carefully moving around the sleeping dragon they make their way towards the sounds of talking in the dining room, Cathilia skulking in the back keeping an eye on the blue dragon in the foyer.

Once there, every eye in the room focuses on Raskreia, before being bombarded by words none of the three can understand. Raskreia also idly notices her necklace lying idly on the table.

Ignoring the voices of the students coming at her for now she goes to pick her necklace up and puts it on, causing all the words being said to make sense at once.

"-uo are back."

"-t happened?"

"- you okay?"

"-at took you so long?"

"Alright, alright calm down for one. You do realize I cant understand you unless I wear this necklace, right?" She says causing the ones that tried to get her attention to blush in realization.

Tabitha then notices something they have not seen before, or more correctly someone they have not seen before. And for some reason once this persons- no this creatures- eyes fall on her it causes every hair on the petite girls body to stand on end. What or whoever this was, was dangerous beyond measure.

Raskreia notices Tabitha stiffened, and when she checks to see where her gaze has landed she makes room for everyone to see as well.

She then hears Louise from her side gasp out before speaking "Raskreia, who and what is that?"

"This is Cathilia, she is a Balor, lord of her kind." Inwardly Rask was hoping that the ignorance Halkeginian's had shown towards the planes extended to demons as well, as she said that.

Guiche still trying to get over a horned and winged woman walking into the room he tries to organize what had been said into for him understandable quantities "So she is a noble?" he asks.

Causing Raskreia to look thoughtful for a moment before answering "Well… yes, in a sense she is."

Kirche then pointed out the obvious, mostly for the benefit of coming to terms with reality "She is not human, is she?"

"Nope, she is a Balor, like I just said earlier." _'Well, it is not a lie. They don't NEED to know that balor's are demons. Gods know that would not go over well.'_

"I suppose she does not know our language does she?" Kirche said, looking the peculiar woman over. And the redhead had to admit that she was indeed rather attractive, unnaturally so, in a feral sort of way. Like an uncut diamond. No more like a finely polished blade.

"Well no, but she can use telepathy." Raskreia then turns back towards Cathilia _**"Could you please initiate a telepathic communication between us?"**_ getting a nod in return.

 _'Greetings mortals. I am told you are travelling companions of Raskreia, therefore I shall endeavour to tolerate your presence for the time being.'_ This action and statement earned her a collection of winces from everyone in the room. The kids, because they had not expected the feeling of mental communication, and the native pair due to the nature of the statement.

 _ **"Well we will have to work on your tact I suppose."**_ Felniir said outside the link, earning a confused look from the demoness.

 _ **"What do you mean? That was perfectly polite. Tolerance is the one of the highest social graces among my kind, only few are ever granted it. Basically when a demon says they tolerate you it means we then need a reason beyond 'I feel like it' to kill you. And I should add that I have already decided I can tolerate you."**_

Felniir couldn't help but stare at the demon in front of her before mumbling out _**"By the gods that might just be the best thing I heard all day."**_

 _'That little byplay in that weird hissing language of yours aside, and ignoring her rather rude statement about "tolerating us" , why did she call us mortal as if she was not mortal herself.' _ Guiche asked once he figured out how to project his thoughts trough the link, and the initial chatter died down.

 _'I am not mortal, human. My kind does not age, we are timeless. We can only die through might and magic.'_ She stated making the students look rather shocked at her casual denial of her mortality.

 _' You will find that there is a number of being that are rather long lived, or downright immortal everywhere. Cathilia for example is at the LEAST ten-thousand years old.' _The students are now slowly opening and closing their mouths in disbelief.

 _ **"I am assuming you are basing this on my time being imprisoned in the hole you had found me?"**_ Gaining a nod from Rask _'In that case I can tell you I am approximately fifteen-thousand years old, give or take a few decades.'_

Now everyone's jaws are starting to go slack. Cathilia was positively ancient.

 _'I don't know about you people, but I suddenly feel like a toddler.'_ Kirche said, getting a nod from everyone, even Raskreia and Felniir.

 _'I am sorry, but can I just point out that she is OLDER THAN OUR CIVILIZATION.'_ Louise's exclamation had everyone wincing as she pretty much shouted directly into their minds. Earning a glare from everyone affected. _'Sorry.'_ She hastily added afterwards.

"Never mind that" Raskreia said out loud once more "As much as I wanted to travel a bit more, it IS already getting dark outside. So we should spend the night here." Gaining a collection of moans of disappointment in return.

"I know, I know. But this was actually rather important business. You will be lucky to know you have not missed much that you could not have lived without. Mostly lots of shit, guts and blood. Also most of the captured people have been saved."

The students did not have to ask about what happened to those who were not saved.

The evening passed from there on with the collective people doing small talk, eating food conjured together with the mansion, and playing some minor games.

Later saw Raskreia and Cathilia locked in a series of chess games, with Cathilia winning most of them. They kept playing like this until the students had all fallen asleep in various locations of this temporary manor.

 _ **"Can I ask a favour of you?"**_ Raskreia suddenly asked, breaking the silence that had fallen in the room.

 _ **"Naturally you can. What do you wish?"**_

 _ **"Could you scout the surrounding areas? I wish to show the kids something interesting in their time here. Just fly or teleport around and see if you can find something that is not all too dangerous."**_ Once Rask has finished speaking Cathilia stands up and nods at her.

 _ **"I shall be back by dawn."**_ And with that she left.

After about a minute Felniir spoke up _**"You are going to talk to someone, are you not?"**_

 _ **"You bet your furry self I am."**_ She to left the mansion leaving Felniir as the only wake person in it.

 _'Well I guess I can go to sleep now.'_ Was the tigers thought _'Gods above, why can't she encounter something normal or harmless for once? Like a Flumph.'_

* * *

With Cathilia

* * *

Cathilia was hovering several hundred meters up in the sky looking down towards the earth.

She does not entirely know what to think of her current situation as of now. She has sworn her undying loyalty to a mortal creature that by all rights should be bellow her, a creature that she would under normal circumstances delight in flaying alive. Yet now that thought alone makes her feel uncomfortable.

She contemplated to disobey the mortals requests, indeed she was certain she wanted to disobey them. Or at least she was certain that she SHOULD want to disobey them. In reality that line of thinking makes her feel as though she was a failure, a worthless worm not fit to see the light of day during its miserable existence. She had felt like this before, she felt like this when she was still a larvae. She is NOT a larvae anymore, and never shall be again.

On the flip side obeying these requests makes her feel right. It is the same sort of feeling she used to get when she tore an enemies skull from their body, when she ripped a rival of hers limb from bloody limb. It is the same sort of feeling she got once she could once more think in coherent thoughts after becoming a fully fledged demon. It is the same sort of feeling she had gotten once she had finally ascended to being a lord of her kind after carving a bloody swathe through her opposition and had claimed a portion of an abyssal layer for herself.

She liked one of those feelings, and it is not hard to figure out which one it was.

 _'Why is it I am thinking this way. Why can I not simply wring that mortals neck and be done with it.'_ She at that moment spots something she had been looking for and starts a slow descent

 _'True, I would have stayed with her even if I had not been feeling this way. I NEVER break a promise, even if most of those are promises of pain and suffering.'_ Her body is now starting to be set alight by deep orange flames that seem to be sucking the surrounding light in to a degree, rather than providing illumination themselves, leaving a sight of a dull orange fleck in the sky for anything that cares to look.

 _'This is so fru_ **sTRATING"** the last part of that had been shouted out at the top of her lungs transitioning in a long drawn out roar. And anything that might have been in the relative vicinity of the area scattered or hid from whatever had made that sound.

For most beings drawing attention to one selves during the night in this world is rather foolish with the number of creatures running around at this time. MOST being the key word here.

What Cathilia just did was a issue a challenge to anyone and anything willing to take it up. Unsurprisingly enough nothing had done so. Whether this is due to the lack of beings in the area or simply unwillingness by those that are there is equally as likely.

After all there is not many things that would willingly go face off against something that makes a sound of a roaring furnace fuelled by the wailing souls of the damned.

Having slightly vented herself, she finishes her descent by simply dropping the rest of the way, creating a loud but dull ***Thump*** on contact, and letting her skeleton take the impact.

What had caught her attention here, at the base of a mountain, is a small hidden glade she is now currently standing in.

She supposes it passes as what mortals would see as beautiful, tranquil and endearing. To her it is merely a glade hidden inside a forest inside of a steep hill. Now that she thinks about it this looks remarkably like the impact site of a meteorite… if that is truly the case.

She without hesitation leaps into the sizable pool of water at the centre of the glade. She might be a creature of fire and brimstone, but water is hardly a hindrance to her as she swims easily to the bottom of the pond. It takes her a while of digging through mud and dirt with her hands, in fact she has to resurface twice in the time it takes her to find what she had been looking for.

There, dead centre and buried beneath who knows how many years of mud is a large chunk of black stone. No, stone does this no justice, for this is a chunk of stone laced with adamantine. The most common of the known skymetals.

Cathilia cant help but grin to herself, this is not a large amount, not really at any rate. But it is certainly enough to forge a blade for herself. Oh how she had missed to craft tools of war.

After resurfacing she looks around the glade for a moment and walks over to a tree had grown there, before placing the chunk beneath one of its roots to hide it away for the time being. Seeing as she had no way to properly carry it for now, being to heavy for her to teleport with it.

 _'This place can serve as a point of interest, though I doubt a singular location will be satisfactory.'_

She briefly makes her body flare with fire, causing any and all water on her to instantly evaporate, before teleporting herself high up into the sky once more, missing a delicate hand coming out of the tree to inspect the meteorite that had been left there.

She spends the next two hours teleporting around the nearby areas and scanning for any place that might be interesting to visit for mortals.

She found a cave with a connection to the underdark, an ancient ruin of a tower overgrown by nature, a druidic ritual circle, a camp of bandits…

She was teleporting at a relatively rapid pace and actually almost teleported away from where she had spotted this camp. And it WAS rather close to that forest clearing over there that is overgrown with flowers, something she is told humans find appealing.

 _'It would not do for Raskreia to be endangered because I ignored these vermin. Yes, all I am doing is pest control, surely she will not begrudge me this.'_ Before she descends she does a survey of what she is dealing with here.

There is two of them "hidden" on platforms on the east and west side of the camp in the canopy of trees, there is another three of them that are awake, while the rest of them that are in view are sleeping, a good dozen men and few women. There is also a decently sized tent at the centre of it all.

 _'Looks like a temporary dwelling, they must be migrating.'_ She stays there hovering about a hundred meters in the sky while gazing at the humans bellow. _'I feel no different than I used to when gazing at these creatures. I feel as though they would be fun to torment, to eviscerate and to tear limb from limb. So it is not as though my mindset is adjusting to that of my new master, she does not seem the type to enjoy such things.'_

Before she lands however, she is struck by a thought. _'Are these actually bandits, or just travellers. I doubt Raskreia would appreciate if I killed at random. They do not radiate good from them at the very least.'_

So she instead floats relatively close to one of the men on the platforms before discretely casting a **'Dominate monster'** on him, causing him to grow stiff.

Cathilia instantly gives him the mental command to act natural, causing the guard to relax once more, before establishing a telepathic link to him. _'Are you bandits?'_ gaining a monotone _'Yes'_ in return. _'Is this camp containing all of your number?'_ _'Yes'_ _' Is your leader in that tent?'_ _'Yes.'_ She then cuts the connection keeping the guard in his current position.

She slowly and carefully starts to glide down towards the ground, the only sound coming from her now is the silent whisper of displaced air.

She could just burn this place to the ground but she actually would like to get a container or two to carry things in if at all possible first. And it is not as though she is in any sort of hurry at this point in time.

It is almost laughably easy to slip into the tent as she lands as softly as a falling leaf.

Once inside she is greeted by the strong scent of sex in the air, making Cathilia wrinkle her nose slightly at the unexpected sensation. Looking over to the origin of the smell she sees a rather muscular human man intertwined with a female of the same species marred with an ugly scar from shoulder to hip. Both of them are not in any way shape or form remarkable beyond what she had already observed.

The only thing worth noting in her mind is the fact that both are naked and sleeping soundly.

 **"Pitiful."** She silently hisses out.

Cathilia picks up the rather decent great-axe that was leaning against a tent post, walking over to the sleeping pair, the axe gaining the same wicked gleam any weapon she carries gains. And as she stands there over their prone bodies the man of the two begins to wake. But before he can contemplate what it is he is seeing his, and his partners, head is already parted from his body with a relatively silent *Shink*.

Cathilia then stops entirely for a few moments listening to any that might have heard this action, and hearing none.

A quick search of the place reveals a small number of gems that she attaches including their small pouch to her belt, a small amount of loose coin, and lastly are well made glaive that might fetch a nice price. But the thing she has wanted the most at this point in time being a large sack with which to carry stuff.

What she then does is switch away from the axe and instead wield the glaive, once she had a feel of the weapon she teleports right beside one of the lookouts in the trees impaling him on the glaive as she does so, and instantly using telekinesis to pull the other guard from across the clearing to impale him on the glaive as well.

If the two separate screams of pain and panic did not gain the attention of everyone there, she seriously does not know what will.

She leaves the two impaled men as they are and simply jumps off the platform, pulling the axe from her back as she does so, and cleanly cuts a man who had been shouting and pointing at her from head to toe.

She can tell the people are panicking to a degree, but it seems their numbers are keeping their confidence intact for the time being, as none of them flee. They are shouting things at her, but it is not as if she understands them.

Instead she does on what she really wants to do. She simply focuses on dodging, letting them think that she is on the defensive.

And so she dances with these mortals for several minutes, with her only striking out occasionally where someone exposes themselves so much it would be suspicious to not capitalize on it. Those times that she does are aimed to main rather than kill, yet these weaklings are dying on her from something as simple as a chopped of leg. Some of their more lucky hits do manage to connect with her, and to keep up the act she makes it look as though their weak attacks are actually doing harm to her, even going as far as letting them past her natural resistance to damage. She does not even consume the life-force of those that die to her, so as to not instantly heal those pathetic cuts they had managed to inflict, never mind that they are healing on their own already.

But these mortals are tiring, a sloppy swing means a broken bone, a miss-step means a severed appendage. And such their number is steadily declining without them even really realizing this fact.

Finally growing annoyed of this little charade after a rather scrawny, and exceptionally unkempt man, goes to swing his hatchet at her, only to instead hit the ground. Yet what put her over her range of tolerance is the fact that this vermin had the audacity to spin on her, and actually hit her right in the face.

In retaliation to this she slices both of his arms off with a quick up and down motion of her axe, before removing both of his legs from his body.

The now screaming torso made everyone that was left pause, all eleven of them. Cathilia capitalizes on this momentary shock by grabbing the still screaming torso of a man by his head, lifting him up to eye level and igniting her arms in abyssal fire. His screams are then rather short lived as the flesh melts of his face and his eyes both explode.

After a few seconds of this she sharply twists her hands in one direction causing the neck to snap, and the torso to drop to the floor. The burned clean skull she is now holding is dropped to the ground and viscously stomped on.

The few remaining bandits chose life instead of death at this precise moment of time as they scatter in all directions of the wind.

Not that they got very far due to the utterance of a single word, **'Blasphemy',** causing a pulse to pass trough reality, and like puppets who's strings were cut all but one of the bandits fall to the ground.

All but one of them dead as dead can be. The last having been deliberately spared, because Cathilia had a hunch about something.

Cathilia's eyes lock on to the single human still alive, the woman running as fast as her legs can carry her into the woods. The woman made one mistake however. You do not run from a predator, it only excites them.

With a grin Cathilia launches herself after the woman, making sure to only appear occasionally in the vision of the fleeing person. Sometimes flying, sometimes running, and occasionally even teleporting in such a way that person does not notice. It would after all not do to make her realize just yet how hopeless her flight is.

The woman is by the end of the hour only barely able to run, only doing so due to a mix of fear, desperation and adrenaline. She can see the exit of this damn forest just up ahead. Only a little bit more and she will be outside of this cursed place. She is truly hoping that this beast will not follow her outside of the woods. Naturally any reasonably thinking being could tell her that the forest is the best chance she has to survive, that the open plains would be suicide. Not that she was in any way reasonable anymore.

And with a last painful burst of willpower and burning muscles she almost literally leaps for the end of the tree-line, falling flat on her stomach as she does so.

But when she looks up her eyes widen in horror. She was back at their destroyed camp. The thing had been herding her this whole time. Sure enough, right next to the camp fire, sitting without a care in the world was the beast that had been chasing her for the past hour.

Though it gave no indication of such, she was completely certain that it knew she was there.

 _'Is she trying to tell me that both running and fighting are futile. Does she want me to just give up?'_

 _'I see you have found your way back here. It is dangerous to run in the woods alone at night. There is wolves about you know.'_

Though startled by the voice in her head, she is not particularly surprised either.

 _'What do you want?'_ she snapped back at the demon still too tired to even stand up.

 _'Allot of things. Revenge, absolute power, all the riches in creation, perhaps a harem. But I suppose you wish to know what I want from you.'_

Cathilia lets the woman stew in silence for a few moments before continuing _'Know that you only live due to rather unusual circumstances right now. I had noticed something during our bout earlier. You were one of the few that managed to land a hit on me, as pathetic as it might have been.'_ The woman cant help but wince at the insult.

 _'But out of all those who struck me tonight you were the only one to be affected negatively from doing so. Of course other than me eviscerating them in retaliation.'_

The demon holds her gaze for a few moments making the woman sweat quite profusely, now that she thinks about it she did feel incredibly numb after having hit the thing, though she had assumed that everyone did. _'What is your point?'_

The glare she is sent makes the woman instantly regret the disrespectful tone she had used. _' My point is that you, unlike these other vermin here are good. Or at least my magic considers you as such.'_

 _'Okay, so your magic considers me good. What does that mean? Do you want to make my death extra special?'_ Now that she thought about it that might be exactly what this thing is planning on.

 _'Not exactly. I just thought that I might please my new master by showing that I can restrain myself enough to pick targets. So here is what I am going to do.'_ The demon at that moment teleports right in front of her, grabbing her by the shoulders and lifting her up to her feet.

She had honestly never felt as afraid in her life as she did now. _'I swear I will live an honest life in my next life. This must be divine punishment.'_

 _'I am going to let my master decide what to do with you.'_

All the woman can think of at the moment is _'why me?' as_ Cathilia bodily grabs her and flies of.

* * *

Several hours earlier, Kingdom of Druma: Kerse

* * *

Raskreia teleported just outside the gets of the city, knowing that teleporting directly into the city would have gotten her attacked by one or more of the various bound outsiders that serve to guard this city.

She quickly goes through the required steps to pass through the gates at this time of night, including reverting to her natural form.

She marches on through the streets at a quick pace, not bothering with keeping to the main roads, as side alleys are almost as well guarded in this place as everything else is. As a matter of fact she can sense the presence of at least one thing inside of the alley she currently is in. Most likely an invisible creature acting as a guard.

After a good fifteen minutes of borderline jogging she reaches her intended goal, a small mansion on top of a hill.

She simply saunters up the path towards the door, pulls out a her keychain, and unlocks the door.

This mansion, on paper, belongs to her and Kwalin. Though it is Zarhon and her living here at the moment. Well, sort of. There is a portal to her demi-plane in the sub-basement, so she is actually living in her own pocket of reality the just so happens to have an entrance in this mansion. As a matter of fact her mansion is a carbon copy of this one.

Long story short they won this mansion in a bet, the bet was to spend one night here and come out alive in the morning. One night and a nest of now dead ogre-spiders later they had a mansion. And it just so happens that the deed to this place has only her and Kwalin's name on it, no one bothered to correct it yet.

The first thing she is greeted by as she enters the foyer is the blazing mouths of a seven headed pyro-hydra. Ah yes… that one of the first things Thorgal brutally murdered faster than we could act.

Above her, acting as a macabre chandelier, is the hollow skull of a ancient white dragon, who's lower jaw had been replaced by one made of metal, its mouth blazing with the illusion of ice-magic, providing light for the whole entrance, there is even what appears to be snowflakes falling from its mouth.

Several other trophies are placed around the entrance of the place. All of them collected during their travels together. The pelt of a dire wolf, spider fangs the size of a person, the helmet of a antipaladin, mandibles and claws of an astradaemon, the hat of a pirate 'queen', and several more.

After a few moments of reminiscing she strides up the stairs and towards the room Zarhon uses for himself. As she comes closer she begins to smell fragrant perfume that Zarhon most definitely would not wear himself.

 _'Great, he has woman over again.'_ Coming to a stop in front of a door she takes a deep breath before moving to knock on the door, but stops herself in the last moment. _'Why am I making this more awkward than it needs to be? I am a mage, for crying out loud.'_

 **'Telepathic bond'** _'Zarhon?'_ she in return gets the mental equivalent of being startled, badly.

 _' Raskreia? Don't scare a man like that, I almost woke a lovely lady up because of you. And you are right outside my door aren't you?'_

 _'Yes. I could have knocked if you had preferred that. And yes.'_

 _'Alright, alright I'm coming. This better be important though.'_ She can practically feel his irritation at having to leave bed, and his partner.

After a few moments what greets her is a shirtless Zarhon wearing only loose pair of breeches.

And once again Raskreia is reminded that Zarhon IS, in fact a devilishly handsome man. To bad it is Zarhon that body is attached to.

He obviously notices her eyes roaming his body briefly and he smirks _'See something you like?'_

 _'Well yes I do. But then I remember it is you I am looking at and suddenly all interest I gone.'_ She playfully flicks his chest with one of her clawed fingers.

 _'You do so love to play with my feelings do you not. But oh well, what do you need?'_ He transmits as he is rubbing the spot she had flicked, for a human that might have drawn blood. Dragon claws are sharp.

 _'Let us move to the party room to talk.'_ He nods and closes the door behind him. And as he does Raskreia can just barely catch a glimpse of a shock of green hair in the bed.

The silently walk to the other end of the hallway, through a door and into a carbon copy of the room Raskreia had been whisked away to become a familiar a few months ago. The doorway is peculiar in and of itself too, as there is a solid wall of blackness inside of it. A permanent **'Mages private sanctum'** has been put in place here. It is also perfectly transparent from the inside out.

Sitting themselves down onto one of the comfortable sofas facing one another. They stay there in silence for a few minutes, just enjoying the peaceful moment both know will be a memory long past once they start speaking again. Zarhon even moves to pour himself a glass of elven wine.

 _"So. What's up?"_ It is Zarhon who first breaks the silence after taking the first sip of wine.

 _"First I wanted to inform you should expect several guests the day after tomorrow. Seven to be precise, and a small dragon."_ He raises his eyebrow a bit at that last bit but nods nonetheless.

 _"Next, what do you know of demons who carry the title 'Skullgrinder'?"_ He eyes her curiously but doesn't seem to be overly shocked at the turn of questions.

 _"It is a rather archaic title, and they do not use it much anymore. Its not really a title of much import per se, more like a 'cross at your own peril' warning. Mostly it was carried by exceptional individuals of their species, and balor's. Tough with them it is a given so it wasn't really used for them all that often. How come such a specific question, did you run into a demon claiming to be a Skullgrinder?"_ He says as he takes a sip from his wine.

She nods before speaking _"A balor lord to be precise."_ Only for him to choke on the wine in his mouth.

 _"You are kidding me, right?"_ at the shake of her head he continues _"HOW ARE YOU ALIVE?"_ he practically shouts out.

 _"Well here is what happened-"_ From there Raskreia recounts the events that happened today to the bard, who is listening in rapt attention. At the end of the tale she chuckles lightly.

 _"You know, is it weird that I consider this to be only third place of unlikely things to happen that actually happened?"_ Making Raskreia take up a curious look.

 _"What are number one and two then?"_

"Number two is Thorgal's time travelling squire. And number one is a shared spot with Ginny finding my equipment and your existence." He says giving her a shit eating grin.

 _"MY existence? Really?"_ She cant help but laugh at that. _"That is equivalent to Ginny finding almost all of your equipment in ONE place after you got sucked up by a tornado?"_

 _"Come on, you ARE the daughter of a goddess and a dragon. You were sent to this here mortal world to live an ordinary life by your mother, who wishes of you to ascend to divinity by your own might."_

 _"Alright fine you got me there."_ They then sit in silence once more before Zarhon breaks it once more

 _"So now what are you going to do?"_ He says while leaning forward. _"I mean, you DO have a greater demon under your employ now. Allot of things one can do with that."_

 _"That is precisely the problem. What AM I supposed to do with her. I do not want to treat her like a slave, nor can I just let her go free, just think of the devastation she could cause."_

 _"I know what you mean, but what if you ignore the fact that she is a demon and just treat her like she is any old normal person. And then go from there."_ This just makes Raskreia more confused for a moment before she realizes what he meant.

 _"So you mean to say, I should just treat her like she was a member of our group. Prevent her from going all 'Slaughtering the innocent' by having her bloodlust directed at something worthwhile?"_ Zarhon shows her a thumbs up in approval.

 _"Precisely. Cause honestly she hasn't done anything that we wouldn't have, yet. Or at least not that we know of. And if we went around judging people by their potential to do harm to others, you and I would be rather dangerous as well. Imagine society locking us up because we COULD wipe out half a town on our own."_

Rask for her part stares at him for a moment before she bursts out laughing, making Zarhon look at her confusedly. _"Did I say something funny?"_

 _"No, but I said something similar just earlier today."_ Causing him to change his look from confused to mock offended.

 _"I will have you know that I too can have reasonable things to say from time to time."_ Only for him to burst into laughter as well. And once again silence reigned between them, though not of the uncomfortable sort.

 _"I suppose you should head back to your lover, and I should head back to my charges. I really want to sleep some. Also, could you do me a favour and look up the laws concerning demons."_ She says as she stands up and starts walking for the exit.

 _"You and me both, though if I am not careful in going to bed sleep is going to be the last thing I am getting."_ He finishes with a wink. _"And sure, I will look into it some."_ Getting a grateful smile in return.

 _"…Sooo you are going to stumble and fall over everything and anything in your way? Gotcha."_ The eye roll in that sentence can be practically felt.

 _"Pretty much, albeit much more graceful than that wording might suggest."_

And with that they parted ways, Zarhon going further down the hallway and Raskreia moving downstairs and teleporting back to the location of the conjured mansion as she reaches the last step of the stairs.

* * *

Several hours later conjured mansion.

* * *

Raskreia is woken up a scant two hours after she had fallen asleep, thankfully just enough for her to regain her magic due to one of her ring's but she would have like to sleep through.

As she, still half-asleep, looks up to see who woke her up she is instantly jolted wide awake when she comes eye to eye with a pair of bright orange orbs. And she just barely manages to suppress the squeak that she would have otherwise produced.

To Rask's surprise Cathilia's eyes take up a look of apology. _**"I am sorry. Did I startle you? I shall endeavour to not do so in the future should I once more need to wake you."**_

The dragon-woman, now once again in her human disguise, takes a calming breath before speaking _**"Its fine, I am just not used to you yet, give it a few days and I should be completely fine… I hope."**_ She mumbles that last part out but the demon's sharp ears catch it none the less, though she makes no outward motion of having done so.

 _ **"Anyway, I assume there is a reason you woke me beyond just wanting to wake me?"**_

 _ **"Yes there is, it will be easier to explain once you see for yourself however. The subject in question is just outside, and could not be brought inside due to the nature of this here conjured space."**_ This causes Raskreia to raise an eyebrow.

 _ **"You brought someone or something here? Why?"**_ and to the trained eye, such as that of Cathilia, she can se muscles tensing underneath skin.

 _ **"Rest assured they are not of any threat to you or yours, if they try anything I shall personally see to it that they do not live to see the next sunrise."**_ One might misunderstand this as something cruel being said. But Raskreia understood this to be a gesture of fierce protectiveness, or at least it is as far as she can decipher demon psychology.

 _ **"Fine, I will be there in a few minutes, you are wearing my sleeves so I had to resort to sleeping in the nude. And in case you are wondering I do not particularly fancy myself an exhibitionist."**_ The minute deviation of the demon's eyes away from her own and down to her form hidden by blankets is not missed by Raskreia. And to be honest she does not know how to feel about that.

 _ **"I see. I shall wait outside then."**_ And with that Cathilia promptly left, leaving Raskreia to put her clothes back on, quickly brush through her hair a few times by hand, then leave.

As she is walking out she is having a internal monologue. _'Is it another demon? Possible, but she can just kill me herself if she wanted. An animal she found on the way? Unlikely, I doubt she would be interested in such things. Or it could be-'_ He monologue is interrupted by her leaving the conjured space.

She stares at the absolutely terrified eyes of the thing her "Pet" has dragged to her doorstep.

"…Or it could be a girl covered in mud, twigs, and blood." She cant help but let out a sigh of both relief and exasperation. "Hello there, My name is Raskreia. I hope my… friend… here did not cause you too much of an inconvenience." Only for the girl to faint on the spot after she had finished speaking.

Raskreia then looked back at Cathilia who had a face of absolute neutrality _**"Explain, now."**_


End file.
